HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Costs of certification:
- Direct cost of initial forest assessment plus annual audit.
- Indirect cost of improved forest management practices (i.e., reduced harvest).
- Cost of chain-of-custody audit
Notes:
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 as well as 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.