Established in 1933, the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association (NELMA) is a non-profit trade association. The Association is accredited by the American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC) as a lumber rules writing agency, and as an agency to provide inspection services for lumber, timbers, densified fuels (wood pellets), and wood packaging materials (WPM)
The International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) – Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packaging Material in International Trade, Publication Number 15 is the official name of the global standard for wood packaging, otherwise known as ISPM 15. This Standard applies to export packaging, such as pallets, skids, crates, boxes, dunnage, etc. manufactured from solid wood components from hardwood or softwood lumber materials. It was developed as a means to reduce the global transport of non-native invasive forest pests, known to having been spread through non-treated export packaging. Numerous examples exist in the U.S. and around the world of environmental and economic loss associated with the introduction of a non-native invasive species to a country, traced back to untreated WPM items.