Claims by Friends of the Earth (FoE) that the UK is the top European importer of illegal tropical timber are challenged by the Timber Trade Federation’s (TTF) Forests Forever campaign.
FoE is calling for new UK laws to criminalise the import of illegally sourced timber, claiming 60% of tropical timber sold in the UK during 1999 was felled illegally.
It maintains one million m³ of illegal timber, worth £140m, was imported in 1999. However, the TTF’s head of public affairs Mark O’Brien, while accepting that there may be a question mark over some imports, as there is in most consumer countries, said that the greens’ figures were off the mark. He pointed out that, according to hardwoodmarkets.com, the entire tropical timber imports in 1999 were only one million m³, making the FoE claim unsustainable.
Mr O’Brien also said that the environmentalists’ demand that all imported tropical timber be certified was unrealistic at present because of supply levels. He pointed out that 90% of the forests certified worldwide were located in temperate northern developed countries.
