The focus of Certisource is to verify the source and legality of timber but we acknowledge and support the fact that governments and financial institutions favour systems that provide assurance of both legality and sustainability. Certisource shares this dream, and indeed it is our long term goal to move interested parties towards sourcing timber from credibly certified forests such as those that are FSC accredited thus ensuring that legal timber becomes synonymous with sustainability.

The global demand for timber products continues to increase but it has been estimated that certified timber currently only accounts for 2% - 3% of overall supply, meaning that illegal timber can and does play a significant role in the marketplace. The choice is simple, do you wait until the supply of timber from credibly certified forest increases or do you provide a solution that helps to eliminate illegal timber from the marketplace, at the same time as encouraging all elements of the supply chain towards operating and/or sourcing from credibly certified forests?

Governments in timber consumer countries are increasingly demanding proof of legal origin before purchasing timber products. Timber industry associations have recognised the need to respond to such legislative changes and are taking steps to ensure that their raw materials derive from legal sources. Indeed, organisations such as GFTN consider that being able to demonstrate that timber originates from a "Known Legal Source" is a key stage in the stepwise movement towards sourcing from credibly certified forests. GFTN also strongly recommend that an independent third party is employed to verify the source and legality of timber.

Certisource was established to fulfil such a role and as such we see ourselves as being complimentary to globally credible forest certification schemes such as FSC.