FSC’s new blockchain-powered ‘FSC Trace’ platform – launched in May 2025 – could hold the key to help stamp out widespread fraud in the global supply chain for certified forest products. That is according to FSC International, which revealed that the new and improved technology (formerly FSC Blockchain) will, along with World Forest ID’s isotape and genetic testing, help verify the origin of at-risk timber products.
It comes as the world’s most recognised ecolabel responded to a new report prepared by Earthsight, which claims that $10 billion and $30 billion worth of certified products were tied up in fraudulent claims. “It’s a trust-based system,” said Sam Lawson, head of Earthsight. “What companies are doing rampantly is selling far more FSC products than they buy FSC timber. So they’re basically slapping an FSC label on wood that’s coming from somewhere else entirely.”
According to Phil Guillery, FSC’s former integrity director, “20-30% of claims in the system were false” during his tenure, “and I haven’t seen anything to suggest the figure has dropped since.” However, FSC issued a swift rebuttal to Guillery’s claims, calling them unsubstantiated and “based on outdated information that does not reflect the system today.”
Addressing concerns that illegal and sanctioned wood from Russia and Belarus are now infiltrating global supply chains: “Since 2022, when the war in Ukraine started, FSC terminated all forest management certificates in Russia,” FSC International said, referring to the drop of certified forest area and increase of chain of custody certificates referenced in the report. “This resulted in 36 million hectares of forest losing certification.” However, “there has been an increase of nearly 6% in certified forests in various parts of the world and currently more than 167 million hectares of forest are certified,” FSC International said.
It comes after Wood Central exclusively revealed that huge volumes of timber – carrying FSC claims – could be (unknowingly) illegal or ‘conflict timber,’ with a new report published by Australia’s Department of Agriculture under the Freedom of Information Act revealing that 50% of all sampled products could not accurately verify the provenance of the wood. The report, produced by Source Certain— the same body which last month revealed that up to 7.5% of all timber used in UK house building could be traced to Russian oligarch-controlled forests—revealed that whilst all known examples of Australian-grown timber were correctly labelled, 63% of import samples carrying private certifications were incorrectly labelled.
“This indicates a lack of ability of third-party certification (including FSC certification) to act as an assurance to support the integrity of a product that is carrying a claim within the consumer market and undermines the credibility of the certification mark itself. These findings indicate importers are likely relying too heavily on third-party certification as a solution to conclude the negligible risk of illegal provenance.”
Source Certain combined market surveillance with lab analysis, to test more than 174 different items of timber-based products. The problems lie with imports: 37 of 74 imported items return results inconsistent with their claimed provenance or taxonomy, resulting in a 50 per cent failure rate. Impacted import categories included oak, teak, and birch products, a range of softwoods, and manufactured items such as veneers, engineered wood, and plywood.
- To read more about the Earthsight report, and why FSC International’s general assembly will hold a key vote on how fraudulent timber will be managed, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from Monday.
