WELCOME TO CMO


Facilitating global market access for small growers and businesses to trade their sustainably produced forest products in the mainstream global market.


Who We Are

Global Advocates for Supply Chain Integrity in the Forestry Sector

CMO's global reach spans eleven countries, and our experienced team has a presence in over eighty nations across the globe. In partnership with Amspec, CMO also supports an additional 33 countries across Latin America with EUDR compliance. Our unwavering commitment lies in promoting transparency, legality, and safety throughout the international supply chain for forest products. We are dedicated to leveling the playing field for responsible stakeholders, including small growers and businesses, by assisting them in accessing the global market for sustainably produced forest products.

Boasting an esteemed team of forestry and technology experts, CMO is well-equipped to address the various challenges and risks encountered by forest owners worldwide. Our comprehensive solutions are designed to support sustainable practices and uphold the integrity of the global forestry supply chain.

We empower millions of small growers to grow billions of trees!

Our Services

At CMO, we offer comprehensive forest management, planning, and monitoring services, as well as technical training and consultation within the forestry sector. With our wealth of expertise, we assist our clients in achieving their sustainability objectives. In addition to our technical training and consulting, we specialise in implementing and managing Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC™), PEFC forest management and chain of custody group schemes on a global scale.

Additionally, we offer European Union Deforestation Regulation due diligence solutions, to ensure that you can trade into the EU with the peace-of-mind that your forest products are produced legally and deforestation-free. Our goal is to promote responsible forest management practices and ensure the traceability of certified forest products throughout the supply chain and combine this with nature-based carbon solutions, to mitigate climate change and make the world a better place.

We facilitate online trading of certified forest products, making it convenient for businesses and consumers to access responsibly sourced materials. Through our deep forestry, certification and carbon knowledge, combined with world-class software solutions, we are the only company in the world making forest certification and trading simple, affordable and scalable.

CMO's FSC licence codes: FSC-C140298, FSC-C150700, FSC-C155102, FSC-C151846, FSC-C172532

Service Pillars

Through our 4 PILLAR approach, we have full control over the supply chain and offer a range of services that bring peace of mind to foresters, processors, traders, wholesalers, and retailers.

Pillar 1: Technical Services

Headed up by Andrew McEwan, the CMO Technical Services Division offers technical guidance to help growers achieve and maintain FSC/PEFC compliance. As a global leader in forestry training and services over the past two decades, CMO takes pride in the support we offer the forest industry.

Forest Management, Planning and Monitoring Services:
  • Comprehensive outsourcing solutions for forest management and planning responsibilities, leveraging our expertise, manpower, and software capabilities to manage on your behalf
  • Monitoring of forestry activities to ensure compliance and improve performance
Forest Consulting Services In:
  • Forest engineering, fire risk management, silviculture, and forest management
  • Contractor and management operational development programs (business acumen, productivity, safety, environment, social), including productivity improvement and cost reduction interventions
  • Forest certification implementation for both forest management and chain of custody
  • Holistic forest risk profiling with risk mitigation interventions

Training Services

Forest assessment and training services in:
  • Chainsaws: specialist instruction for high-risk harvesting
  • Climate change and carbon training courses
  • Mechanised Harvesting and Silviculture, including the use of simulators
  • Silviculture and Fire operations and risk management
  • High Impact Supervisory and Management Training: Based on CMO’s unique PDCA, SPEQS, HIRAC model
  • Certification training:
    Face-to-Face or remote FSC/PEFC/EUDR industry training for managers, foresters and supervisors. Forest management, Chain of Custody and ISO 19011 Internal auditor training.

Pillar 2: Certification Through Group Schemes

Headed up by Michal Brink, the strength of CMO's Compliance Management Division lies in the combination of the power of our Empower software solution to run FSC certified operations, our extensive experience and know-how of forest certification and our broad technical knowledge of forestry.

CMO offers certification services through the FSC Group Scheme Model, as acquiring FSC/PEFC forest management (FM) certification for individual farmers or single sites can be costly. Our group scheme approach allows multiple forest owners/managers across a country to share the certification expenses while benefiting from CMO's technical expertise and support.

FSC/PEFC certification entails thorough evaluations of company policies and procedures, as well as field implementation, to ensure compliance with social, environmental, and economic requirements.

CMO can combine an FSC FM Group scheme certificate with an FSC Ecosystem Services claim and a FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) Group scheme certificate, enabling the FSC claim to be transferred throughout the supply chain.

Consultation:
All CMO certification experts have over 20 years of experience in certification. CMO provides consultation services, whether remote or on-site, for the implementation of COC systems. This includes assistance with implementing the necessary procedures, providing training, and offering support throughout the certification application process. Additionally, CMO can conduct second-party audits (internal audits) to help prepare for certification body audits on both FM and COC systems.

CMO offers several options for Group Scheme services:

Option 1:

CMO owns and operates the group scheme, as previously described. In most current certificates, CMO holds the FSC certificate on behalf of all its members.

Option 2:

The organisation owns the group scheme but outsources its full management and administration to CMO, utilising CMO's software and expertise.

Option 3:

The organisation owns and manages the group scheme, employing CMO's software on a license fee basis.

Considering the recently approved European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) there is heightened scrutiny surrounding legality and deforestation-free products being produced and sourced by all actors in the forest products supply chains.

CMO has produced an end-to-end solution to ensure peace of mind that such forest products are legitimately entering the EU in terms of the EUDR requirements.

Pillar 3: Nature-based Carbon

Headed up by Ciska Terblanche, we specifically focus on nature-based carbon solutions.

High-integrity voluntary carbon markets enable private financing to protect forests and support the transition to a low-carbon global economy. CMO identifies, assesses, and develops nature-based carbon projects for voluntary carbon markets. Our goal is to protect and enhance ecosystem biodiversity through nature-based carbon solutions.

CMO Group and its consultants have extensive experience in carbon project development and trading emission reductions. We emphasise the importance of high-quality credits for buyers and strive to develop projects that deliver high-integrity carbon credits.

We have in-depth knowledge of forestry conditions and offer services to assist businesses in developing internationally accredited Voluntary Emission Reduction (VER) projects, generating carbon credits for trade in the voluntary carbon market.

We offer end-to-end services for carbon project development, guiding you from the initial concept through to monitoring and control, while also assisting with securing necessary financing.

Typical projects we focus on:

Typical carbon projects we focus on

Pillar 4: Digital

Headed up by our CTO Daniel von Heynitz, CMO Digital is leveraging cutting-edge technology to develop the digital backbone for sustainable forestry and supply chain management

Our comprehensive approach includes all phases of product development, from requirement gathering to system and user interface design, and full-stack implementation.

What We Do
  • Web and mobile application development
  • Best-in-class solutions
  • Agile and adaptable through continuous improvement
  • Universally applicable and scalable
  • Traceable products
  • Online trading platform: ForestTrader
A Global Marketplace for Sustainable Forest Products

ForestTrader connects growers, traders, and buyers from around the world, offering market alignment, integrity, and convenience. Participants include small and large growers, traders, and buyers, both within and outside of our Group Schemes.

ForestTrader Products:
  • Listed by country, type, grading, and more
  • Launching with charcoal (Namibia) and timber (South Africa)
  • Supports 50+ timber and non-timber forest products
  • All FSC certified, providing economies of scale
  • Logs, charcoal, woodchips and rubber
System:
  • Transparent and simple bidding on open orders
  • Connecting buyers with FSC certified sellers worldwide
  • A world of transparent trading and traceable products
  • Convenient, low-cost, and reliable through a central rating system

Endorsed by key market players, including regulatory bodies, sellers, buyers, and traders, ForestTrader helps build credibility and grow portfolios for connecting with more credible buyers and sellers. The platform rewards meritocracy, with every user action recorded, analysed, and made transparent to add credibility.
Visit ForestTrader here.

To see how simple it is to trade watch this short video.

Partners And Clients

Amspec logo Mivico Weber & Schaer RAOT
Amspec logo Mivico Weber & Schaer RAOT