• Timber trade experts allege the Forest Stewardship Council lacks the ability to proactively detect fraud throughout its global supply chains.
• They hope the body will change, with a vote on whether to lay the groundwork for a new volume tracking system slated for this coming week.
• The FSC has dismissed some broad estimates of fraud within its network as unsubstantiated, but a senior FSC official who spoke to Mongabay on condition of anonymity said it remains widespread.
• A new report by Earthsight estimates the value of FSC fraud at billions of dollars per year and says the body’s reputation for ensuring sustainability is on the line.

The world’s largest green timber label will vote next week on whether to begin work on new traceability rules, amid renewed scrutiny and accusations over whether the body is doing enough to prevent fraud within its supply chains.

The Bonn-based Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) bills itself as “the world’s most trusted mark for sustainable forestry.” Its tree-tick logo can be found on everything from furniture and snowboards to toilet paper and takeaway containers, an assurance the product was made with wood from forests the FSC has certified as responsibly managed. FSC certification appears on products worth tens of billions of dollars in sales each year.

But forestry experts and whistleblowers have alleged for years that the FSC lacks a proper control system, allowing bad actors to fraudulently pass off timber that was illegally or...

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