The timber industry will have to wait until probably at least mid-July before the results of the government’s reassessment of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) are released.
Bob Andrew, procurement adviser at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said an announcement could not be made until government officials met NGOs. He said this meeting was unlikely to happen before the first week of July.
News of the continuing delay follows environment minister Elliot Morley’s announcement on Friday that results would be published “at the earliest opportunity”.
Mr Morley said: “The speed with which PEFC and SFI responded to our initial assessment was impressive.
“I want to announce the results of these reassessments as quickly as possible, but some stakeholders are understandably keen to understand how the results were arrived at and what the implications are for forest management.”
Both PEFC and SFI recently changed their regulations to meet the Central Point of Expertise on Timber’s definition of sustainable forest management, after initially being classed as evidence of legal but not sustainable timber.
The government originally intended to change its procurement guidance on May 9 but is postponing any announcement until the reassessment results are released.
