If the timber industry were looking for an enthusiastic advocate in parliament, then it might look no further than Paddy Tipping.
In his dual roles as MP for Sherwood and chairman of the all-parliamentary committee for forestry Mr Tipping is well aware of the challenges – and opportunities – facing the UK timber industry.
“It’s a dead exciting time for timber,” he said.
That excitement comes on several fronts, not least the growing recognition of timber as a sustainable product, and its role in helping to meet the government’s sustainability agenda.
“Wood is a sustainable, exciting and flexible product,” said Mr Tipping.
He also recognises woodland’s role in recreation and its contribution to reducing greenhouse gases through carbon sequestration.
The government has established the Central Point of Expertise in Timber to help advise government departments on legal and sustainable timber and Mr Tipping said it is important that this is reinforced by the government demonstrating it is buying certified, legal timber. The government can push this further by ensuring that local authorities take up the mantle.
Purchasing sustainably-managed timber is going to be an extra – as yet unquantified – cost to the public purse but Mr Tipping believes that if it is explained properly, it will have public support.
“It [the cost] is not going to be great. I guess across the whole range it might be the cost of half a new hospital. I bet if you talked to the public, they would say yes, we want legitimate sources of timber.”
And that education extends to teaching the public about forest management, including those who write to him, “not infrequently”, complaining about felling they have seen.
“You’ve got to teach people that you manage the environment; it doesn’t just exist,” he said.
Managing the environment
Mr Tipping grew up in Yorkshire, in one of the “tough textile towns”, and often went walking with his parents in the picturesque Yorkshire Dales. He recalls that, as they enjoyed the view over Wensleydale “Mum and Dad used to say ‘it’s always been like that’. But it hasn’t always been like that. The environment is managed by man and we have to persuade people of that”.
He acknowledges that tropical rainforests can be a more complex issue but this is where CPET will help.
And the government can play a direct role too, said Mr Tipping. First, it should be clearer about which government departments are involved in timber-related issues. Second, as a major purchaser of timber it can make “a lot of difference’, and third, it can use its influence to promote timber to the building industry.
This is assisted by the timber industry’s rising confidence and improved communication with the government. In the past month or so, Mr Tipping has received several invitations from the forestry sector. “This was unthought of several years ago,” he said.
G8 discussions
Last month at the House of Commons, Mr Tipping and Timbmet chaired a meeting on African timber. Environment minister Elliot Morley and international development minister Gareth Thomas attended and the resulting paper was sent to the government’s Commission for Africa and will now form part of the G8’s discussions.
“This is unbelievable progress,” said Mr Tipping. “People from the timber sector organising a discussion, two ministers in tow, writing a report for the Commission for Africa that ends up as part of the G8 – it shows that we’re getting places.”
While recognising that the timber industry is making progress, he does have some advice.
“It could raise its voice a bit more – although that is happening,” said Mr Tipping. “More importantly, it needs to speak with one voice. It’s been an enormously fragmented industry and the more that trade organisations come together and see themselves as complementary rather than in opposition, the better.”
Having said that, other sectors could learn from the timber industry’s long-term view.
“It’s a criticism of government sometimes that they respond to the latest challenge. In an area like this, you need policies that are stable, and shared across the political parties.”
This he said, has been a useful message of the all-parliamentary committee, whose remit is to promote the interests of forestry in the UK and internationally. “We’re making decisions about investments that really are generational and you need policies that will survive the test of time. It’s a good cornerstone of sensible government policy.”
With a general election coming up, and the possibility of a change of government, this philosophy is even more pertinent.
“This really isn’t party political stuff, it’s about good practice,” said Mr Tipping.
