Certisource is an industry driven initiative established to enable clients to eliminate illegal timber from their supply chains through the provision of professional, credible and cost effective, independent verification services. Certisource works with any element of the timber supply chain that shows a willingness and commitment to achieving real and beneficial improvements to their operations. Our long term goal is to move interested parties towards sourcing timber from credibly certified forests, and in this way we see Certisource as being complimentary to accepted global timber certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

The primary aim of Certisource is to reduce the traffic in stolen logs. Our Chain of Custody verification systems enables legal and illegal timber to be differentiated within the market place by following procedures and standards recommended by the World Wide Fund for Nature's Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) in its document 'Responsible Purchasing of Forest Products'.

Certisource verifies the source of timber using the best available technologies, including DNA, bar coding and RFID. These technologies are operated in partnership with other independent and professional organisations so as to maximize the transparency and credibility of our tracking systems. By verifying the source and tracking timber batches through the entire supply chain, Certisource aims to provide the most comprehensive chain of custody verification service available to responsible members of the timber supply chain. In turn, we believe that our methods and the technologies we employ ensure that the Certisource certificate carries a level of assurance unchallenged worldwide.

Certisource is working together with other industry representatives and prominent environmental groups to help curb illegal timber.