HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

• Costs of certification:

  • Direct cost of initial forest assessment plus required annual audit and re-assessment.
  • Indirect cost of improved forest management practices (i.e., reduced harvest or increased expenditures).
  • Cost of chain-of-custody audit

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Costs of forest certification may be separated into direct and indirect. The former include the costs of hiring a second or third party verifier or the cost of conducting the audit by hiring one’s own employees (first party). Initial assessment, re-assessment, and annual audit costs are included.

If chain-of-custody is desired, additional auditing costs are incurred. Costs of tagging forest products, keeping products segregated at various stages of production and marketing products are included in this activity.