A government claim that 37% of its timber procurement comes from certified sources has been rejected by the WWF which says the figure has been “pulled out of the air”.
The First Annual Sustainable Development in Government Report, formerly called the Greening in Government report, says £7,286,365 (37%) of the various departments’ spend on timber was on certified wood products.
WWF says the recent Cabinet Office embarassment, when illegally sourced wood was used for refurbishment of the building, showed that timber with ‘guarantees’ of sustainability could not be believed unless it was FSC-certified.
Rachel Hembery, WWF timber procurement campaigner, said: “WWF looks forward to congratulating the government on its achievements concerning buying increasing amounts of certified timber when it is more transparent about how it is coming up with its figures.”
The organisation says the government has not yet published the findings of consultancy Environmental Resource Management’s study into what timber from a responsibly managed source is defined as.
