The environmental audit Committee is the parliamentary committee which monitors government performance in delivering its commitment to promote sustainability. Following the well-publicised Greenpeace action at the Cabinet Office in April, the committee decided to examine the role of
government in promoting sustainable timber and it has just published its report Buying Time for Forests, for which the Federation supplied evidence.
The report criticises the government for failing to change timber procurement practices and accuses the Treasury of preventing the use of procurement to achieve other policy goals. It calls on every department to establish reporting mechanisms to enable progress towards making procurement policy more sustainable and measurable.
It also calls on the government to establish clear criteria for the assessment of certification schemes by the year end, with the input of NGOs where appropriate. We will be pressing the government not to adopt a de facto certified timber only policy for two reasons.
Firstly, the supply of certified timber is currently relatively small and it would be wholly self-defeating for procurement decisions to end up favouring environmentally unfriendly timber substitutes. Secondly, it would be wrong to adopt procurement criteria that would result in discrimination against timber from developing countries. This would fly in the face of the government’s commitment to support sustainable forestry in the developing world as a source of wealth creation and employment.
The government will respond in due course to the committee’s report and the Timber Trade Federation will continue to exercise its influence over the development of procurement policy. We realise that the government’s potential to change the nature of the timber market through its buying power is considerable and we will continue to watch developments in this crucial area closely.
