Anniversary Project Case Study: Development of the Brazilian timber Due Diligence tool for timber importers

At the 12th BRICS Summit, held via video conference on the 17th November 2020, the Brazilian government “threatened to disclose” that “Europeans have purchased illegal timber from Brazil during 2017”. Indeed, this is true. Recent analysis by BVRio concluded that a high percentage of Brazilian hardwoods, exported to EU member states and the USA in 2016-2017, had a very high risk of illegality. The study was based on BVRio’s Timber Due Diligence systems, that uses big data analysis and satellite imagery and is able to able to identify the risk of irregularities in 99% of cases.

In September 2019, the Expert Group for the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) released specific due diligence requirements for timber imports from Brazil. These requirements aim to ensure that the risk of illegality along the supply chain is at a negligible level. To facilitate the due diligence process for timber operators, BVRio explains how its Due Diligence System can help meeting these specific requirements.