The UK could overtake France in the next year as the country with the most PEFC chain of custody certificates, delegates heard at PEFC UK’s 10th anniversary AGM.
Currently, PEFC UK has the second highest number of chain of custody certificates within the international PEFC family.
“France leads the medals table but we are hard on their heels and hope that the coming year will see a revival in the UK economy which will enable us to catch, and preferably overtake them, to claim the number one spot,” said Peter Latham, PEFC UK chairman.
Mr Latham said recent Timber Trade Federation statistics showed that PEFC’s share of UK timber imports has risen to around 50% in 2008, while FSC’s was 30%.
Most encouraging, he said, was the knowledge that around one in three customers now specifically request certified goods.
In March the scheme passed the milestone of one million ha of UK forests awarded PEFC certification, including all Forestry Commission forests and some 500 privately-owned forest estates.
PEFC UK is spending more than 30% of the annual notification fees for promotional purposes, such as attendance at the Ecobuild exhibition, while it is also planning to be at TRADA’s new timber show – Timber Expo – in Coventry.
It also appointed a specialist PR company last year to undertake an outreach programme in parliament among the key policy makers in all three main political parties.
Mr Latham paid tribute to outgoing PEFC national secretary Willie Walker, who will be replaced by Alun Watkins.
“We are particularly grateful to him for his determined efforts to encourage the UK forestry sector to undergo dual certification to both the PEFC and FSC standards,” he said.
