How to Maintain Geolocation Evidence

Keep the evidence behind the final coordinate file

Maintaining EUDR geolocation evidence means preserving more than the latest map export. The file should show which production location was identified, how it was identified, which geometry and production period supported the assessment, and how that location relates to the goods. Retain the source and the reasoning alongside the final technical representation.

Article 9 requires operators to collect, organise and keep the specified information with evidence for five years from placement or export. A record that remains physically stored but cannot be connected to the product is difficult to use. The maintenance process should preserve relationships and context, not merely accumulate files.

Retain the source and the assessed version

Keep the original supplier geometry or coordinate table, the associated identification evidence and the version used in the assessment. Where conversion or correction is required, retain the resulting file separately. The reviewer should be able to distinguish what the supplier provided from what the operator or service provider changed.

For example, a supplier may send a national-coordinate-system boundary that is transformed into WGS 84 GeoJSON. The final file is useful for submission, while the original source and transformation settings explain its provenance. Keeping only the converted output can make a later systematic-location error difficult to diagnose.

Use stable identifiers and meaningful versions

Assign stable plot or establishment identifiers and a clear version history. Record the date, source, reason and reviewer for each material change. Avoid naming files only “final” and “new final”, which gives little help when several production periods and corrections coexist.

The boundary-change guide explains why real expansion and corrections require different analysis. A version record should state whether land was added, a mapping error was repaired or a technical export was adjusted. That distinction helps identify which products and periods might need to be reassessed.

Preserve production dates separately

Article 9(1)(d) requires the production date or time range. Keep this separate from the survey date, file receipt date and submission date. A coordinate collected recently may represent an older production unit, but that relationship needs evidence rather than an assumption that the newest file applies to every historical purchase.

For cattle, keep establishment and movement-period relationships connected to the animals or traceable groups. For other commodities, preserve the harvest or relevant production-period relationship for the lot. This temporal structure becomes essential when investigating whether an assessment used the right land extent at the right time.

Link locations to product and quantity records

Keep the lot-to-plot or animal-to-establishment relationship and the original records supporting it. A map register should connect to intake, aggregation, processing and outgoing product records as appropriate. If a location concern arises, the business needs to identify which goods may be affected.

A practical retrieval test works in two directions. Select a shipment and retrieve every contributing location and geometry version. Then select a location and identify the related receipts and outputs. If either direction fails, the team may have retained individual files without retaining the traceability relationship needed to explain the product.

Store the assessment context

Retain the sources and outputs used in the land-history review, including imagery or dataset references, dates, limitations and the interpretation. Keep the relevant legality evidence and any unresolved issue alongside the location record. The coordinate itself cannot explain why the operator concluded the land and product met the substantive conditions.

Where an external platform supplies an analysis, preserve enough information to understand the scope and conclusion later. A green status on a live dashboard can change when the provider updates its model. The assessment record should show what evidence and interpretation supported the decision at the time, rather than depend entirely on the provider's current display.

Protect access without losing availability

Use backups, controlled permissions and a documented handover when staff or providers change. A supplier portal subscription or a single employee's inbox should not be the only access route. Retention should remain workable after a commercial relationship ends or a system migrates.

Where confidentiality is important, restrict unnecessary access while preserving the operator's ability to assess evidence and provide it to competent authorities on request. A protected archive is useful only if the appropriate people can retrieve and interpret it. Document any external service arrangements supporting that availability.

Review active records and retain historical ones

Check whether active supplier and plot records remain current when production areas, source arrangements or official requirements change. Updating current data does not justify deleting the history relevant to earlier goods. Mark superseded versions clearly and prevent them from being mistakenly used for new transactions.

The geolocation requirements pillar provides the wider framework. Use Articles 9, 10 and 12 for the information, documented assessment and system-maintenance duties. A maintained evidence record should let an independent reviewer understand the production place, its product relationship and the decision without relying on the memory of the person who first mapped it.

When migrating systems, test relationships as well as file counts. Confirm that plot identifiers, geometry versions, production periods and lot links survived the transfer. An archive reporting every attachment copied successfully can still be incomplete if its links have been lost. Retain the migration mapping and a sample retrieval result so future reviewers understand how historical identifiers correspond to the new system.