Crackdown on illegal timber.
April 8, 2008 12:00 AM
News that the European Commission is to propose measures to ban the import of illegally felled timber has been welcomed by a North West Euro-MP.
Demand from North West households for furniture and DIY wooden goods is playing a part in feeding an illegal trade in timber that is damaging some of the world's poorest countries.
Corruption and poorly enforced laws in developing nations are allowing criminals to destroy virgin forests that are home to thousands of rare species. Deforestation accounts for 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions, more carbon dioxide than is produced by all worldwide transport.
But the business is possible only because buyers here turn a blind eye to it or are deceived by false certification paperwork. Demand by consumers across Europe for building materials, furniture and paper fuels the trade which every year destroys forests with a total area four times the size of Belgium.
A voluntary licensing scheme for timber imports into the EU designed to combat illegal timber felling was first introduced in 2005. But this has not proved sufficient and the Commission has now accepted that MEP calls for legal redress must now be adopted.
The Liberal Democrat spokesman on the environment warns that people in the North West are putting profits into the hands of criminals because of a lack of guarantees that the wood they buy has come from sustainable sources.
He said: "New laws are urgently needed to force timber buyers in EU nations to purchase only from properly licensed sources.
"Some encouraging progress is being made by the timber trade in Britain to ensure that the source of trees can be confirmed, but it is still the case that hardly a single merchant can guarantee that they have not purchased wood from illegally felled trees.
"There will be no forests left at all unless we take steps quickly to ensure that people can be confident of the purchases they are making. Businesses then that put profit before forest survival should be prosecuted."
Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) schemes seek to provide a sustainable source of timber. The FSC is endorsed by major environmental charities and identifies wood products sourced from well-managed forests. These products range from bookcases sold by Homebase to bird tables from Woolworths, and can be identified by the unique FSC logo.
But Mr Davies would like to see a massive expansion in such initiatives across Europe so that consumers can have confidence that no wood products are made from illegal timber.
The Commission is set to announce the new measures later this year.
A full list of FSC certified products and suppliers can be found at:
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