Barry Gardiner MP has upset the timber industry in one of his first outings as the prime minister’s new special representative on forestry.
Mr Gardiner, the keynote speaker at the latest Chatham House illegal logging and stakeholder conference, left industry executives open-mouthed and raised eyebrows among NGO attendees when he said the trade was “sick” for using poor people to oppose the government’s updated procurement policy.
The remark was made in response to a question by the Timber Trade Fedeation’s head of environment and corporate social responsibility Andy Roby, who had said certain poorer supplier countries could be frozen out of government timber procurement because of the new policy – which Mr Gardiner approved earlier this year when he was biodiversity minister.
Timber Trade Federation chief executive John White expressed surprise and incredulity at Mr Gardiner’s remarks.
“Andy Roby’s commitment to helping poor people is greater than anyone I know. He used to be a community forestry in Cameroon when working with the Department for International Development. To be subject to an attack in the way he was was wholly unjustified. I can only think the fomer minister misunderstood something that was being said.”
Mr White said the timber industry was not against the new procurement policy but pointed out that it failed to address the position of suppliers in non-FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade) countries who were working hard to get certified legal timber.
Peter Latham, chairman of James Latham plc, said it was as if Mr Roby’s comments had touched a nerve with the former minister.
“I felt it was an unfair attack on Andy and the industry. The industry has done a lot to work towards certification, there have been encouraging projects in a lot of areas but it has also been doing a lot of work with government funding to get verified legal supplies in place, particularly in Africa.”
TTJ contacted Barry Gardiner but was told he was too busy to give a response.
Mr Gardiner’s new forestry role will see him work with former Canadian prime minister Paul Martin and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai.
