Chain of custody

English term for chain of custody. Particularly well known in the timber trade due to the COC certification (Chain of Custody certification) of the FSC®. For an FSC® certificate, it is not enough for the forest alone to be managed sustainably. All participants in the trade chain up to the end customer must submit to the independent controls of the FSC®. The FSC® standard for product chain certification (FSC®-STD 40 004) applies uniformly worldwide to companies in the processing and trade sectors. The standard regulates the traceability of materials and thus creates transparency in the product chain. To ensure that material flows are actually verifiable along the entire product chain, every company in the product chain (processing and trade) must be certified in accordance with the COC standards.