Forests Forever is to revise its Environmental Timber Purchasing Policy, making it more streamlined and rigorous, to add greater credibility to companies’ buying decisions.
The revision is one of the organisation’s listed aims in its newly-published Environmental Report 2002/2003, to be distributed to policy makers, civil servants and the media.
The changes are designed to make the policy easier to understand and integrate with central government timber procurement guidelines.
Forests Forever, now fully part of the Timber Trade Federation, last year evaluated 65 annual reports from companies who signed up to the voluntary purchasing policy, in order to measure its overall effectiveness in encouraging environmental improvements in 2001.
The reports showed a “marked increase” in companies’ proactivity in implementing policy commitments and assessing the environmental credentials of suppliers. There were also significantly more companies purchasing timber from independently certified sources.
The organisation’s chairman Charles Trevor said it had been another challenging and productive year, with Forests Forever heavily involved in both the Asian and African Forest Law Enforcement and Governance process, as well as working closely with government.
Other future activities will include developing a website (costing £42,795); provision of information and seminars to architects on the environmental case for timber; distribution of guidance notes to members for ensuring compliance with environmental legislation; and producing country specific guidelines, for Cameroon, Indonesia and Russia, to help traders procure legal timber.
