“On the one hand we must welcome anything that encourages suppliers to get themselves certified,” said Andy Roby, The Timber Trade Federation‘s head of environment and corporate social responsibility. “But you have to express concern for those countries outside of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement process, which are already struggling to achieve third-party certified proof of legality and sustainability.
“If they do not meet the 2009 deadline, they will be excluded from our market and we will lose all market pull and influence over their forestry management.”
Peter Latham, chairman of James Latham plc, said: “Certainly we support timber certification by one of the recognised schemes. But I think at the moment there is not a lot of evidence that the government’s current policy is being put into practice and there is an unwillingness to pay the premium on certified tropical supplies.
“I think it would be better if the government concentrated on making the current policy work. There is no evidence of any policing.
“It’s a good thing, the government is setting targets but I think it will mean difficulties for certain tropical timber countries.”
Rupert Oliver, director of Forest Industries Intelligence, said the new policy could cause problems in the hardwood and plywood sectors rather than softwood.
“It will create problems for a lot of producers who have developed legality verification procedures in consultation with CPET.”
Mr Oliver said the market for high-class complex joinery and office furniture, where a variety of hardwood timber species are used, could face difficulties.
He also said the new policy was discriminatory against the US, the single largest supplier of hardwood to the UK, because it was difficult for many American hardwood producers to get certification for “technical reasons”.
Belinda Fletcher, of Greenpeace, said: “The government has made many commitments on timber but the reality is that it continues to ‘talk the talk but not walk the walk’ and repeatedly fails on delivery.
“Rather than setting targets to make headlines, it needs to tighten procedures to ensure it is delivering on its promises. We have repeatedly exposed illegal rainforest timber being used on government buildings despite commitments to the contrary.”
