The TFT, which is industry-backed, guides forestry operations in tropical countries through the Forest Stewardship Council certification process and also helps develop markets for the certified product.
The announcement that it had been approved as a charity by the UK Charities Commission (previously it was classed as a not for profit organisation) was made at a special reception at No 11 Downing Street last week hosted by Chancellor Gordon Brown’s wife Sarah and addressed by junior treasury minister Ed Balls.
“We’re very excited at our approval by the Charities Commission,” said TFT chief executive Scott Poynton. “It should open a greater range of funding support to us and this should allow us to expand into new countries.”
Mr Poynton told the reception that the TFT had already developed rapidly since its foundation seven years ago. It is now working on 31 certification projects covering a total of 2.7mha of forests worldwide. It is also a key player in the UK Timber Trade Federation’s (TTF) Timber Trade Action Plan which is designed to improve supplies of timber from well-managed sources into the UK.
At the event, which was attended by representatives of government, the timber trade, the retail sector and environmentalist NGOs, Mr Poynton also welcomed the latest member company to join the TFT, the Italian arm of international diy retail giant Castorama, which is part of the Kingfisher group.
It had also been hoped that the Downing Street reception would be the venue for a major breakthrough, the award of the first FSC certificate to a major African forestry concession, the 260,000 Kabo operation run by CIB in the Republic of Congo. The auditing company SGS was unable to approve the certificate in time, but the TFT, which has helped the concession through the process, said it hoped the final ratification would take place soon.
Following the opening of a Chinese office recently, Mr Poynton said the TFT is opening another in central Africa, and also expanding its operations into Bolivia and hoping to set up an office in the US.
