Illegal logging

In order to facilitate the task of operators, in particular in third countries, Regulation 995/2010 established so-called "monitoring organisations" (Article 8). These are organisations which are set up in one of the EU Member States. They have the task of maintaining and regularly updating a due diligence system as required by Article 4 of the Regulation, and grant operators access to it. They shall verify the proper use of their system by the operators and take appropriate steps in the event of failure by an operator to properly use their due diligence system. In the case of significant or repeated failure, they shall inform the competent authorities. The monitoring organisations shall be regularly checked by Member States as to whether they are continuing to comply with the requirements of Regulation 995/2010, in particular when shortcomings are detected in the implementation by operators of the due diligence system established by a monitoring organisation.

The monitoring organisations are recognised by the Commission, after consultation with the Member State(s) concerned. They must have legal personality, possess the appropriate expertise and capacity to establish and monitor a due diligence system and may not be in any conflict of interest in carrying out their functions. Until the end of 2015, twelve monitoring organisations had been recognised by the European Commission.

Under Article 5 of the Regulation, all traders of timber - throughout the supply chain - are requested to be able to identify the operators or traders which supplied the timber, as well as the traders to whom they supplied the timber. This was an attempt to have a complete and transparent way of tracking the provenance of timber that was imported into the EU.

It is clear that Regulation 995/2010 requires operators and traders to organise their business in a very professional form, with documents and copies that allow the discovery of what kind of timber was cut, when it was cut, where it was supplied to, who the different traders involved were etc. At the same time, the competent customs and other authorities of the 28 EU Member States have the task of controlling the application of the provisions of the Regulation in each individual case. This will not make the import of timber into the EU easier. It might lead to excessive paperwork, a slow-down of trading activities and perhaps even to a re-channelling of some timber trading to non-EU countries. However, this might be the price to pay for fighting illegal logging.