Importers of products made from timber, including  paper and paper products need to start developing their due diligence and compliance programmes now or face up to 5 years imprisonment, up to hundreds of thousands of dollars fines or both, for importing illegally logged products and failing to comply with the Illegal Logging Act.

By the end of next year, the new Illegal Logging Act and Regulations kick in. Importers of timber products won’t be able to turn a blind eye to the source of the wood and paper products they are importing. They will need to know that these products are not made from, or include, illegally logged timber. I should point out that products made from recycled materials are exempt or partially exempt.

The Act imposes heavy penalties on importers for failing to implement a due diligence system that, amongst other things, sets out the written procedure the importer will follow  including for collecting specific information, conducting a risk assessment on the likelihood that the products were made from illegally harvested timber and retaining all their records. The information they need to gather includes:

• the type of tree from which the product was made
• the forest from which it was harvested
• where the product was manufactured
• information about the supplier
• paperwork and licences from the supplier and harvester
• evidence that the timber was not illegally harvested.

The Regulations lists 46 types of products including wood, particle board, timber flooring, picture frames, barrels, wood pulp, newsprint, writing paper, toilet paper, composite paper, stationery, cartons, furniture and prefabricated buildings.

To avoid getting caught and paying the penalties companies that import timber products should familiarise themselves now with what is required of them and develop a compliance programme  including their diligence process and risk assessments to prepare for November 2014 and maintain the smooth delivery of their product lines.