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Collected bulletins, events and resources from Book Chain Project together with news links from external sources.

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This resource was published on 4 September 2025
Forest Country Risk Tool

Forest Country Risk Tool

Tool

The Forest Country Risk tool is integral to the Book Chain Project forest source grading system. It assesses the risk of deforestation (loss of forest cover) and transhipment (importing of timber from countries with deforestation risk) at a country-level.

The tool belongs to SLR but is freely available to download and use. Please do credit SLR Consulting if you reproduce the results or methodology of the tool.

Find out more about how we use the tool to assess forest risk.

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This link was published on 30 May 2025

SCA postpones the pause of its FSC Forest Management certification in Sweden

Following constructive dialogue between the National Sami Association (SSR) and FSC, SCA has decided to postpone the implementation of it's pause to FSC Forest Management certification in Sweden.

  • SCA
  • Sweden
  • Europe
This link was published on 16 April 2025

FSC's response to SCA's decision on its forest management certification

  • FSC has published a response, regretting SCA’s decision and responding to SCA’s points. FSC encourages SCA to engage with FSC rather than terminating its FSC certification status.
  • FSC argues against a singular focus on carbon and emphasises the need to consider multiple environmental impacts.
  • FSC claim the move is likely to reduce environmental considerations of SCA, especially towards preservation of high-value forests and reindeer husbandry.
  • As SCA manages nearly a fifth of FSC-certified forests in Sweden, the withdrawal is expected to significantly reduce the volume of FSC-certified products on the market.
  • FSC
This link was published on 7 April 2025

SCA's letter to FSC International - Pausing of FSC certification in Sweden

  • SCA is Europe’s largest forest owner and a major timber, pulp and paper manufacturer.
  • A long-standing member of FSC, it announced its intention to temporarily pause its FSC Forest Management certification in Sweden starting June 1, 2025, due to a series of systemic challenges it sees within the current FSC framework.
    • Still supports FSC: Although SCA is leaving the Swedish FSC system on June 1st, they will remain a member, keep its Controlled Wood and Chain of Custody certifications, and maintain Forest Management certification in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
    • Hopefully temporary: The pause is intended to protect SCA’s ability to meet climate and sustainability goals, not to leave FSC entirely.
    • To prompt dialogue: SCA is calling for a meeting with FSC and stakeholders in Frankfurt to work on solutions collaboratively.
  • SCA
  • Sweden
  • Europe
This event was published on 26 June 2023

London Seminar 2023

Seminar | 5 Jul 2023 09:30–17:30 London

Join us at this year's Seminar, with the theme Transparency: an Open Book. We'll explore the increasing expectations on companies to gather, share and disclose information on their sustainability impacts across the value chain - for example to understand the impacts on nature, ensuring commodities are deforestation free, human rights due diligence, Greenhouse Gas emissions, and options to make our books more circular.

The seminar is our annual event where we bring the publishing community and our stakeholders together from across book supply chains to discuss the hot issues, be inspired by the latest innovations, and make new connections. The event will be attended by staff from the 28 publishers that participate in the Book Chain Project, as well as representatives from the pulp & paper mills, printers, certification bodies, NGOs and other stakeholders who we engage with.

The Seminar will be a full day of activities, guest speaker presentations and opportunities for networking and catching up, including a guided tour around the Wetland Centre.

Attendance is limited, please register below and we will confirm your place.
Please email us if you have any dietary requirements.

Engaging the value chain sustainability
5 Jul 2023 10:00–10:45 London

speaker_125
Joanna Yarrow
Chief Sustainability Officer, Founding Partner, M&C Saatchi Group, M&C Saatchi LIFE

Joanna is an international expert in sustainable living & a respected voice in sustainable business.

She is Chief Sustainability Officer for the M&C Saatchi Group (the world’s largest independent creative solutions company) & Founding Partner of M&C Saatchi LIFE – a strategic creative consultancy making sustainable living mainstream. She is also NED at sustainable placemaking company Human Nature (designing & places that make sustainable living easy & attractive) & sits on P&G’s global sustainability advisory board.

With over 25 years’ experience in applying sustainability principles to projects ranging from household makeovers to multinational business strategies, Joanna brings confidence, humour, vision & clarity to the challenges of net zero, ESG & healthy, sustainable living.

Biodiversity
5 Jul 2023 10:45–11:30 London

speaker_121
Jake White
Head of Legal (Advocacy & Campaigns), WWF-UK

Jake White trained at a regional commercial law firm and then moved into the City to practise intellectual property. However that didn’t suit hence he joined government where he had 10 very stimulating years in the Government Legal Service advising on a range of areas from outer space, State aid to nuclear energy. Jake left government to join the third sector in 2012 where he worked first with Friends of the Earth and most recently at WWF where he is head of legal advocacy.

He has a particular interest in equality and human rights and has worked with NGOs in the Middle East and for Britain’s equality and human rights regulator (the Equality and Human Rights Commission). He is particularly interested in exploring this intersection in his work including in relation, for example, in relation to the great forests of the world and the peoples that live in them.

Human Rights
5 Jul 2023 11:45–12:30 London

Human Rights

speaker_122
Francesca de Meillac
Advisor, Shift

As an Advisor at Shift, Francesca works with companies and financial institutions to support their implementation of the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs).

Francesca was previously Principal Consultant at Environmental Resources Management (ERM), where she led ERM’s UK human rights team, and global technical community on modern slavery and human rights. Francesca advised multinational companies to assess and address human rights risks, build internal capacity and develop and implement fit-for-purpose policies and management systems. She also worked closely with financial institutions including development finance institutions (DFIs), commercial banks, export credit agencies and private equity on assessing and managing human rights risks in accordance with international standards including the UNGPs, IFC Performance Standards and Equator Principles IV.

She has international work experience across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America including on-the-ground experience conducting stakeholder consultation, human rights impact assessments (HRIA), environmental and social due diligence (ESDD) and monitoring. Francesca is also experienced in designing and delivering training and capacity building on social performance, human rights and sustainable finance.

Francesca holds an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a MA in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University. She is from Trinidad & Tobago.

speaker_123
Zuzana Mocilenkova
Advisor, Shift

As an Advisor at Shift, Zuzana works with companies and other strategic partners to support their implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

Prior to joining Shift, Zuzana worked as an independent business and human rights consultant, and as Principal Consultant at Labor Solutions, a social enterprise using technology to advance human rights throughout company value chains. In these roles, Zuzana supported businesses across different sectors to use worker voice tools and developed training content on effective grievance mechanisms in line with the UNGPs.

Prior to being a consultant, Zuzana was Head of Ethical Trade and Human Rights at Stella McCartney for over 7 years. In this role, Zuzana led the practical implementation of the UNGPs across the full due diligence spectrum and traveled extensively throughout the company’s sourcing regions in Europe and Asia. Here she gained hands-on experience working with suppliers, workers and local experts to identify root causes of human rights risks and design and deliver capacity building programs. This included carrying out stakeholder engagement, improving purchasing practices and encouraging company participation in collaborative industry programs. Zuzana has particular expertise in small, artisanal and informal fashion supply chains.

Zuzana holds a Master of Applied Human Rights from the University of York. In her thesis, she researched participatory approaches to addressing discrimination against the Roma minority population in Slovakia. Zuzana is a Slovak and British national.

Deforestation-free pulp & paper
5 Jul 2023 14:00–14:45 London

speaker_119
Jade Saunders
Executive Director, World Forest ID

Jade Saunders is the Executive Director of World Forest ID, an international non-profit, with the mission to build a global reference database of forest risk commodities including timber, to aid verification of species and harvest origin of products in global trade.

Jade has over 20 years of experience working on forest governance, trade and environmental crime, most notably as an Associate Fellow of the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House and as Senior Policy Analyst at Forest Trends. She has also served as strategic advisor to ForestMind and policy analyst at the European Forest Institute FLEGT Facility.

At World Forest ID, in addition to developing the organization's overall strategy, Jade's main focus is on overseeing the data science and machine learning workstream. She works closely with governments and industry on mainstreaming scientific testing for supply chain traceability and promoting the practical application of the World Forest ID reference database.

Climate action in the supply chain
5 Jul 2023 14:45–15:30 London

speaker_124
Lydia Elliott
Supply Chains Manager, We Mean Business Coalition

As Supply Chains Manager at the We Mean Business Coalition, Lydia Elliott works across supply chain climate action and net zero strategy. For the SME Climate Hub, a core initiative of the We Mean Business Coalition, Lydia works to enable large companies value chain action and helps to develop the tools that small and medium sized businesses need to take climate action.

Breakout sessions
5 Jul 2023 16:00–17:00 London

Type
Seminar
Date
5 Jul 2023 09:30–17:30 London
This event is in the past
This link was published on 8 June 2023

Status of Forest Management Certification in Poland

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification has been a vital component of sustainable forest management in Poland for over 25 years. Until recently, approximately two-thirds of the total forest area of 9.2 million hectares in the country were FSC-certified. The certified forests are managed by the Regional Directorates of State Forests (RDSF) and two Forest Experimental Stations under the University of Poznań.

Despite initiating dialogue in November 2022 between FSC International and Polish State Forests, six Regional Directorates of State Forests (RDSFs), representing an area of roughly 2 million hectares, have opted to discontinue FSC certification in their respective regions. The affected regions include:

  • Gdansk (FSC-certified area: 303,938 ha) - expired
  • Torun (FSC-certified area: 456,447 ha) - expired
  • Poznan (FSC-certified area: 419,535 ha) - certificate expired on 4 April, 2023
  • Warsaw (FSC-certified area: 194,960 ha) - certificate expired on 9 April, 2023
  • Radom (FSC-certified area: 325,074 ha) - certificate expired on 1 May, 2023
  • Pila (FSC-certified area: 362,770 ha) - recertification granted on 10 March, 2023; license agreement was valid until May 31, 2023

The collaboration between Polish foresters and FSC has enabled many Polish companies to grow their market reach through exporting their FSC certified products to regional and international companies. Today, Polish companies are among global leaders when it comes to the production of furniture, doors, windows, panels, and other wood-based products. There are currently 2,500 FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certificates in Poland, making it one of the top countries for FSC CoC globally.

Kim Carstensen, Director General of FSC International, says: “We will reinforce our engagement and presence in Poland to ensure that we have a solid foundation for responsible forest management now and in the long term. We will continue to promote sustainable practices throughout the country in line with our values, while safeguarding its global credibility”.

FSC acknowledges the significant implications for certified supply in the country coupled with the existing shortages as a consequence of the Ukraine war. To address this issue, FSC is actively working alongside partners and members to develop strategic solutions to fill the supply gap.

  • FSC
  • Poland
  • Europe
This link was published on 20 September 2022

Hungary Eases Logging in Protected Forests to Tackle Gas Crunch

Hungary waived environmental regulations protecting native forests from logging, showing the increasingly extreme steps the government is willing to take to prepare for next winter’s energy shortages.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's cabinet, citing the effects of the war in neighbouring Ukraine, loosened regulations on logging to meet increased demand for firewood as a result of surging gas and electricity prices.

  • Bloomberg
  • Hungary
This link was published on 24 February 2022

Amazon deforestation fuelled by misinformation

• According to scientists, the deforestation of Brazil has been driven by a deliberate misinformation campaign that has systematically weakened environmental protection laws.
• It has been claimed that the research team from Embrapa Territorial (ET), the branch of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), a federal enterprise for agricultural research and development have used various tactics to dismantle environmental protections in Brazil, such as manufacturing uncertainty in relation to consensual science; making claims that appear as scientific facts but that contradict scientific consensus; and making false claims about scientific credentials.

  • The Ecologist
  • Brazil
  • Latin America
This link was published on 24 February 2022

Decline in deforestation in Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem

Conservationists attribute the improvement of the situation to an increase in monitoring efforts, as well as greater scrutiny of palm oil producers operating in the landscape by brands and buyers with zero-deforestation commitments.

  • Mongabay
  • Indonesia
This link was published on 24 December 2021

Polish environmentalists protest as logging resumes in Bialowieza forest

Environmental activists in Poland have complained about the resumption of logging in a protected forest. NGOs said that trees are being cut down again in Bialowieza, Europe's last primeval forest in eastern Poland. But Poland's national forest administration has dismissed the complaint and says that it is acting legally.

  • Euronews
  • Poland