“We are in a great industry and in a sustainable industry. We now have to prove it to the British people. We are going to rebrand the forest industry here in Britain.”
These were the inspiring words of Lord Clark of Windermere, chairman of the Forestry Commission, at the launch of the UK forestry industries’ sustainability strategy in February.
Held at Portcullis House, Westminster (itself an Aladdin’s cave of timber products) and hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Forestry, the event was attended by nine MPs, including environment minister Elliot Morley. Margaret Beckett, secretary of state for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), sent a message of support.
With the launch of the strategy, called “Naturally Wood”, the forest industries boldly proclaimed their aim to be an “exemplar” of sustainable development to other business sectors.
It sets out how both the UK’s domestic growing and processing industries, plus importers and traders, will work together to further develop wood’s credentials as a sustainable raw material.
The Forest Industries Development Council, which heads a task group behind the strategy, believes the sector is key to a sustainable UK society because forests deliver environmental, social and economic benefits; timber and wood products are integral to everyday lives; and wood is a renewable and versatile material.
Prime ministerial challenge
The strategy was originally inspired by a challenge from the prime minister to five industry sectors, including forestry, to demonstrate their commitments to sustainable development in advance of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.
Welcoming Naturally Wood, Mr Morley said: “The forest industries can now be seen as providing part of the answer to some of the problems facing society.”
He called Naturally Wood a “first step” and a model for others to follow but warned the industry to make sure illegal logging did not damage its cause.
Issues covered in the document include measuring environmental impacts; production and procurement of sustainably grown timber; biodiversity and land use; transport and distribution; waste, recovery and reuse; and biofuel, energy and climate change.
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“The forest industries can now be seen as providing part of the answer to some of the problems facing society” |
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Environment minister Elliot Morley |
Specifically, aims include the elimination of illegally harvested timber from the UK market and encouraging the sourcing of wood from legally harvested and sustainably managed forests by: increasing the area of independently certified domestic forests from 40% to 60% by 2007; setting a 60% target for the proportion of certified product in the UK market by 2007; and increasing the number of Timber Trade Federation companies signed up to a formal timber sourcing policy from 25% to 75% by 2007.
Forest manager Steve Conolly, of Cawdor Forestry Ltd, highlighted the value and potential of the industry, revealing that forestry and primary processing supports an estimated 30,000 jobs and about 190,000 people in total across the UK.
He put the value of the UK forest industry at £6.35bn annually, with the non-timber element making up about £1bn. Some 40%, or 1 million ha, of the UK’s forests are UK Woodland Assurance Scheme certified.
Multi-stakeholder approach
One of the reasons why Naturally Wood has been lauded by so many people is its multi-stakeholder approach. Hilary Allison, chairperson of Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of environmental NGOs which looks after some 390,000ha, said the strategy was evidence of how forest industries and green groups had moved closer together.
“Environmental NGOs now appreciate more fully the value of wood in society,” she added.
Tim Rollinson, the new director-general of the Forestry Commission, said: “I do not know about other sectors that can come up with sustainability claims like ours and prove it.”
He called wood a model for sustainable solutions but warned that Britain needed to grow its own wood profitably or there would be “trouble ahead”
Lord Clark revealed that the prime minister had personally sought him out to talk about taking the forests forward, while deputy prime minister John Prescott had also expressed interest.
The industry had a “strong story to tell” but was not a good communicator, and traditionally hid its light under a bushel, said Lord Clark. The strategy launch was vital in getting across to consumers that sustainability operates both in state and private, commercial forests.
In her statement, Margaret Beckett added: “The UK is well placed to promote sustainable forest industries since we are a world leader in the credible and independent certification of sustainable forest management and because our position as a major importer of wood products provides us with significant leverage overseas.”
