Not every 10 year old can boast birthday congratulations from the Prince of Wales, the prime minister, a cabinet minister and a whole host of captains of industry. So it’s a measure of the ground the WWF 95+ Group has covered and the esteem in which it is held that its 10th anniversary event, held in London at the end of November, attracted accolades from all the above.

Before introducing the keynote speaker, the minister for the environment Michael Meacher, WWF-UK‘s chief executive Robert Napier set the event in its world context. September 11 had marked a ‘terrible watershed’, he said and the prime minister’s subsequent speech had demonstrated our interdependence on this planet. ‘We are all linked – through issues such as terrorism, climate change and deforestation,’ said Mr Napier. ‘We’re addressing the latter because of the impact it has on people.’

He went on to pay tribute to the 95+ Group members who had acknow-ledged that change was needed and said the WWF felt privileged to have played a part in its foundation. However, its continued success required the help of the government and he hailed Michael Meacher as ‘a real champion for the environment’.

Mr Meacher reinforced the PM’s message: ‘The human race is umbilically linked to the natural world on which its survival depends,’ he said. ‘And no-one has protected it more effectively than the WWF.

‘The government appreciates the tireless campaigning of the WWF 95+ Group and its member companies to buy only sustainable timber. This has been a major driver in raising awareness and, as the first buyers’ group in the world, it has set an example,’ he said.

In updating the 200 delegates on the government’s efforts to promote sustainability worldwide Mr Meacher gave his assurance that the government was ‘determined to tackle the scourge of illegal logging’, which, he said, damaged both market prices and had a detrimental social impact.

He added, however, that the UK government was unable to impose unilateral bans on imports of goods from countries suspected of criminal activities as there was no international law to support this and such a move would be unacceptable to the global community. ‘We have to accept that some of our timber may come from illegal sources… and we must aim to control that bilaterally.’ The way forward, he maintained, was through dialogue and by changing people’s perceptions and promoting sound timber procurement policies to the public sector.

Mr Meacher said a mark of the government’s involvement was its facilitation of the FSC-accredited UK Woodland Assurance Standard. The Forestry Commission had certified its whole estate to this demanding standard – a fact which was rewarded later that day by the presentation of the WWF Gift of the Earth Award to the Forestry Commission (FC) and its agency Forest Enterprise (FE).

The award was presented to David Bills, director-general of the FC, and Bill McIntosh, chief executive of the FE. In accepting the award Mr Bills remarked on the fact that just 10 years ago ‘it was fairly unthinkable that the FC would be presented with WWF’s highest award for helping to preserve the planet’s natural wealth. But we have come a long way since then and so have environmental groups like WWF, the forest industry and business too. Confrontation has given way to consultation, polemic replaced by partnership’.

Memorable milestones

The road had been long, but marked with memorable milestones, he said. In 1998 the FC published the UK Forestry Standard, born out of the Rio Earth Summit. In 1999, following representations by the WWF 95+ Group, the UK Woodland Assurance Standard was launched and later that year the FC, through FE, ‘after months of rigorous audit, won certification for all 800,000ha of the public forest – the only country in the world to achieve that. We have engaged in certification both as a government department and as a forest manager’.

He went on to say that the certification had been seen by the FC as ‘an excellent tool for promoting and demonstrating sustainable forest management’, but added this plea: ‘It’s tough to be a primary producer in the UK at the moment. We have a high pound and cheap imports. We are heavily exposed to global markets. We believe we have added value to our products through certification. But we need you [buyers’ group members] to deliver your part of the bargain by demonstrating a preference for certified timber.

‘More than 70% of British timber is certified but around less than 10% is carrying that brand through to the end user,’ he said. ‘Work has to be done to maintain the chain of custody – if a chain is not used it will become rusty.’

Francis Sullivan, WWF-UK’s director of programmes, briefed delegates on the past successes and future challenges of its buyers’ group initiative. He reminded them that the WWF 95 Group had been set up in 1991 and had committed to phasing out the use or sale of all wood and wood products that did not come from sustainable sources. The Forest Stewardship Council had been born out of the need to drive that initiative forward and had facilitated this by working with suppliers and producers and tracing timber and paper through the supply chain. By 1995 the WWF 95 Group had 47 members.

Of those he singled out key members who had shown ‘real commitment’ from the beginning: B&Q and its suppliers, Chindwell, Masons Timber Products, Shireclose Housewares, BBC Worldwide, Sainsbury supermarkets, Blueline Office Furniture and David Craig.

The WWF 95+ Group now leads the world, said Mr Sullivan. It has over 100 members and 10,000 product lines now carry the FSC logo. Twenty per cent of timber sold in the UK is now from FSC-certified forests and 24.5 million ha of forest worldwide is certified to FSC standards. There are now also Global Forest and Trade Networks (buyers’ groups) in 19 countries with 800 members, which have an effect on virtually all global markets.

However, ‘we’re still importing far too much illegal timber,’ said Mr Sullivan. ‘The challenge is to unravel the complexities of establishing credible certification systems. This has to be done globally.’

Looking to the future Mr Sullivan said a challenging target was necessary to ensure that the FSC becomes mainstream. Its five year mission, he said, was that by the end of 2005, 75% of the timber and paper consumed in the UK would come from credibly, independently certified sources. This was with the caveat that the target be modified to include timber and fibre from recycled and reclaimed sources in line with percentage based claims policy.

An increased demand is required, said Mr Sullivan, and the focus of attention should be broken down into paper and timber – and within the latter, construction timber, panels and tropical timber.

The WWF would work with three major sectors: with central government on the implementation of its timber procurement pledge (‘which is not there yet’); internal communications training; and case studies in which the government would be encouraged to ‘adopt’ prestige products and see them through. Ninety MPs currently support the need to fast track the timber procurement commitment, said Mr Sullivan.

Local government would also need to be tackled, he said. While 74% of local authorities (LAs) have now heard of the FSC, interim results of a WWF questionnaire on LA timber procurement showed that 69% of LAs don’t have a policy and 3% don’t know whether they have one or not. Of the 27% of LAs that do have a policy, two-thirds did not confirm how well it was implemented or whether it was monitored.

Central government could provide legislation to LAs to procure timber from independently certified sources, said Mr Sullivan.

The third target area is the construction sector. The WWF is increasingly working with the Royal Institute of British Architects, (200 architects have already ‘signed up’) and construction companies, but ‘home builders and construction companies can do much more’.

Public awareness

Greater promotion and improved public awareness are also needed, said Mr Sullivan and to this end WWF-UK, in conjunction with FSC-UK, will help with the public launch of the FSC logo in the spring of 2002.

Heiko Liedeker, the FSC’s executive director, also set out some challenges. What started in the UK had led to members in 59 countries, endorsed national initiatives or contact persons in 28 countries, 24.5 million ha of certified forest in 51 countries, more than 1,900 chain of custody certificates in 60 countries and more than 10,000 FSC-labelled products, he said.

Now the FSC’s emphasis would be on institutional development, to build a powerful global network; business areas and structures, to provide quality services; and organisational governance, to drive FSC’s global mission. All these would ‘maintain and extend FSC’s global leadership,’ he said.

The FSC would decentralise, strengthen national initiatives, establish regional offices and dedicated service centres in order to respond to global, national, regional and local dialogue he said. Its head office would relocate from Oaxaca in Mexico to Europe where it would ‘lead a decentralised global network driven by the same mission, agenda and strategy’.

The FSC would build a comprehensive portfolio of competitive services and align these with international requirements, Mr Liedeker added.