Government minister Gareth Thomas has appealed to local authorities and the EU to ensure the timber they buy is legal.
Mr Thomas, speaking at a Chatham House discussion in London yesterday, also announced £5m funding for a programme to help secure the rights of poor people who rely on forests for their livelihoods.
“I call on all EU countries to adopt timber procurement policies and for local authorities to follow the central government’s lead and buy forest products only from legal and sustainable sources, said Mr Thomas, parliamentary under-secretary of state for international development.
“This will help developing countries to protect and manage their forests by closing the market to illegally logged timber. They can do this by ensuring that the products they buy are verified as legal or certified as sustainable.”
The government’s new £5m injection is additional to the £15m contribution made to the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility during the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali.
The money will go to the Rights and Resources Initiative, an international coalition of organisations which work to address the competing demands on forest resources with the aim of protecting the environment and the millions of poor people who rely on forests for their livelihoods.
