Environmental campaigners have rounded on PEFC-certified plywood being used for a London Olympics training venue even though it meets the Games’ procurement policy.
Australian environmental group Markets for Change alleges that eucalyptus plywood from Tasmania, imported by International Plywood, had links with rainforest destruction. Its allegations were carried in an article in The Independent on Tuesday.
The product is being used for the flooring of the £20m SportsDock training venue at the University of East London’s Docklands campus, which is being used by the US team during the Olympics.
Campaigners have focused on the logging activities of Malaysian-owned Ta Ann, which they said harvested the wood for the plywood from “old growth” forests.
International Plywood told The Independent it did not have any current trading contracts with Ta Ann and would review its relationship with the firm if it could be shown it was not complying with International Plywood’s purchasing policy standards.
It said supplying PEFC certified product, as Ta Ann had done previously, would meet its current purchasing policy.
PEFC is one of the timber certification schemes approved for use in the London Olympics build programme, which has a timber procurement policy based on that of the UK government.
Environmental groups, including Greenpeace and Markets for Change, have criticised PEFC for failing to protect forest biodiversity and instead favour the FSC scheme.
