Politicians and members of the timber trade have gathered together to welcome the prospect of new EU regulation to control the import of illegal timber.
Kingfisher CEO Ian Cheshire and WWF CEO David Nussbaum spoke about how the legislation was a key step in fighting illegal logging.
The European Council is soon due to rubberstamp due diligence legislative proposals designed to make it an offence to import illegal timber into the EU, with introduction of the regulations set to follow in 2012.
Forestry minister Jim Paice, Caroline Lucas MP and former environment minister Hilary Benn added their perspectives on the legislative process so far and their visions on how the law should be implemented.
Julia Young, manager of WWF UK’s Forest and Trade Network, said the event effectively brought together many of those who had “worked tirelessly” to help bring the legislation into being.
“It is now up to EU countries and timber companies to show that they want to ban illegal activities in the forest sector and properly implement the rules, punishing those who are still reluctant to respect the rules,” said Ms Young.
