Not everyone welcomed the government’s decision, in the words of Timber Trade Federation president Neil Donaldson, to “ratchet up” its timber procurement policy. It has told the trade that from April 2009 it will only buy timber that’s certified legal and sustainable, or supplied by partner countries in the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative.
Critics of the move say some suppliers now working towards proof of legality won’t meet the deadline. As a result they’ll be effectively shut out of the UK market and turn to potentially much less environmentally discerning customers.
But you have to give biodiversity minister Barry Gardiner credit for his willingness to stand up for the new policy. In his TTJ article explaining the strategy, he’s straightforward and uncompromising. The government sees the new procurement rules as central to its ambition to tackle illegal logging and make the UK an EU leader in sustainable procurement.
It will, he says, also push ahead with the next target, to accept only certified “legal and sustainable” timber from April 2015.
Mr Gardiner pulls no punches. Responding to the comment in TTJ that his department had “dropped a bombshell” on the trade, he says: “It was wrong. It is the start of a very long barrage.”
At the same time, he tacitly accepts criticism that the government is introducing its new policy without sufficiently ensuring the old one was enforced. “That’s why I’ve insisted that it be launched along with a root and branch review of monitoring systems”, he writes.
Whether you agree with his views or not, it is also encouraging that Mr Gardiner takes the timber industry’s concerns sufficiently seriously to give us the government side of the story. He says that he now wants to involve the trade to ensure successful implementation of the procurement policy, and particularly in the establishment of audit trails that are “robust without placing a disproportionate burden on suppliers”.
So the invitation is there. I guess it’s now down to the trade to respond.
