The SHC Assurance System enables consignments of U.S. hardwood to be accompanied by the documentation required to demonstrate legal and deforestation-free origin, including geolocation data. The key components of the system include:
an annually updated quantitative assessment of the risk of conversion of deciduous and mixed deciduous/coniferous forest to agricultural land, at the level of individual counties in the United States;
independent third-party assessments of the risk of illegal harvesting in the U.S. hardwood-producing states;
an online web portal to make this data freely accessible to U.S. hardwood mills and other operators engaged in the U.S. hardwood trade;
a chain of custody (CoC) standard for hardwood mills, downstream distributors, exporters, and manufacturers to ensure that the legal and deforestation-free claim is applied only to verified U.S. hardwood;
systematic testing of verified U.S. hardwood products using advanced wood identification technologies - specifically Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA), and Trace Element Analysis (TEA) – to ensure system integrity and improve efficiency by allowing field audits to be targeted on higher-risk supply chains.
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