From the forest to the consumer - GVces - Fundação Getulio Vargas

Technical and legal experts analyze the documents, check if the property title is
legitimate and if it is located within conservation or indigenous areas.
Sustainable forest management divides the area to be harvested into parcels
– each one is harvested for twelve months while the others are left to regenerate.
Before the logger is able to harvest wood in these areas, he needs to
submit an Annual Operational Plan (POA). If it is approved, the Logging Authorization
(Autex), a document required for timber production and storage, is issued.
The timber produced under this system must carry identification plates so that
it is traceable from forest to industry.
The Autex is issued for the per-
A logging license requires
son who submitted the management
a series of documents,
plan. In the next step, the environmen-
satellite based maps to
tal authority inputs a certain amount
confirm the boundaries
of credits – equivalent to the timber
of the area to be
volume authorized for harvest – into
harvested
the electronic controlling system. The
system is available on the Internet, but
to be able to access it both the timber supplier and the consumer must register
with the Federal Technical Registry, which is managed by Ibama. As with a bank
account, the user receives a code to be able to conduct transactions with the
timber credits. For instance, a supplier that has sold logs, boards and other timber
byproducts, transfers credits from his account to the buyer’s.
The buyer then needs to register his acceptance of the offer and finally the
system issues an online document that certifies the legal origin of the timber. The
document must be carried during transportation and match the amount, timber
species and destination of the product being transported. There are currently two
types of documents used for that kind of control. The Forest Origin Document
(DOF) is issued nationally by Ibama and used in most states. It was hastily put together
in 2006 when deforestation rates in the Amazon were climbing and there
was international pressure to solve the problem. Previously, control was done
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