Comments made by Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2 about the wood.for good advertisements have been slammed by the Timber Trade Federation and wood. for good managing director Charles Trevor.
On April 3 the veteran broadcaster referred to a report from environmentalist group World Resources Institute (WRI) which claimed that within the next 20 years 40% of the world’s ‘intact’ forest will be destroyed.
Mr Wogan said on air that the report, which had previously been featured on BBC Radio 2’s 9am news bulletin, put wood. for good’s claims that ‘two trees are planted for every one felled’ in a new light.
An anonymous listener going under the nickname Jolly Miller added: ‘what they don’t tell you is the two trees that are planted are a lot smaller than the one they cut down and will take approximately 40 years to reach that size. So they might have increased the number of trees, but the total biomass of woodland has decreased.
‘They use statistics as a blind man uses lamp posts for support rather than illumination’, he said.
Mark O’Brien, head of communications at the Timber Trade Federation said: ‘The WRI report contains no reference at all to the replanting that is taking place in Europe and North America.
‘The wood. for good ‘two-for-one’ claim is a perfectly legitimate statistic.’
Charles Trevor said: ‘Wood is the only sustainable building material and the forest industry worldwide has made tremendous progress in improving forest mangement practices.’
