The vast bulk of the 17.5 million m3 of timber imported by the UK in 2003 came from legal and sustainable sources and all Timber Trade Federation members are committed to only trading in such material.
But there is a small proportion of timber and timber products that are imported from countries where illegal logging takes place and it is important that mechanisms are in place that prevent illegal timber imports from entering the market.
As part of a European Union-wide initiative to help tackle this problem, the European Commission has published a proposal to establish voluntary licensing schemes for imports of timber. The proposal plans to create “voluntary partnership” agreements with countries that have a known illegal logging problem.
The EU scheme will accept the supplier countries’ definition of what constitutes legal timber and the individually negotiated licences with necessary control systems will be used to discriminate against timber not covered by the scheme. Among the first countries expected to sign up are Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, Honduras and Guatemala.
The TTF wants to work with stakeholders to develop voluntary legality verification systems adapted to producer countries’ conditions which do not form barriers to legal trade or displace trading to other less sensitive markets.
With the next phase of the UK government’s timber procurement policy being announced in September and this EU-wide initiative now unveiled, time is running out for timber that cannot establish its legality.
The TTF continues to play its part, through the development of the Responsible Purchasing Policy, which will be available for use by members by the end of this year. Then the battle against the competition can begin in earnest.
