In the past some greens wouldn’t have trusted the timber industry to set its own environmental house in order any more than you’d trust a British pensions minister to remember the £100,000 you’d contributed to his election fund.
But times are changing. A few in the sector may have had to be led by the nose on this one, but now timber businesses, national and international industry organisations are actively setting the agenda. Rather than waiting for the environmental NGOs to produce the map and point it in the right direction, the trade is increasingly sitting down with them at the outset so they can work out the best route ahead together.
In his Wood Futures column, Jamey French of US-based Northland Forest Products, a dyed-in-the-wool eco-committed timber business if ever there was one, describes one of the most significant collaborations between industry and environmentalists so far. Last year the US hardwood sector joined with a group of NGOs to lobby congress for tougher legislation to stop illegal timber entering America. Instead of convoluted new regulation, they pressed for the long-established Lacey Act, which covered imports of wildlife products – including feathers and lizard skins! – to be extended to wood.
Mr French admits that there was scepticism on both sides at the outset and some businesses seem to have been more worried about the act of sitting down with the greens than they were about the stricter legislation; but they took the plunge and it paid off. The US now has clear, uncompromising rules on illegal timber with which all parties seem to be happy. At the same time, the hardwood sector has risen in the estimation of the environmentalists and an increasingly eco-driven political community. Just as importantly, it’s laid the way for future co-operation with the NGOs.
More needs to be done to build bridges, says Mr French, including adopting a policy of zero tolerance towards “bad eggs” in the trade still dabbling in illegal timber. But the effort will be worth it and will give the timber sector leverage to “challenge the environmental community to join us in promoting the sustainable raw material – wood”.
