BSW training pays off
27 July 2006British soldiers tackling illegal logging in the Balkans are successfully putting into action skills learnt during a training programme involving BSW Timber.
The 2nd Battalion Yorkshire regiment, the Green Howards, have uncovered evidence of illegal logging during their six-month operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But the combined effort of troops and forestry managers is believed to be having a deterrent effect.
The soldiers prepared for their campaign by taking part in a three-day exercise in mid-Wales during March, involving BSW. Troops mounted a “dawn raid” on the company’s Newbridge-on-Wye sawmill, with BSW planting bogus paperwork on its employees and briefing drivers to be evasive.
“The UK training package prior to deployment gave the soldiers and commanders a useful insight into forestry management issues, in particular the intricacies of illegal logging,” said Royal Navy spokesperson Lieutenant Richard Wallace.
The operational area covered by the Green Howards is about the size of Northern Ireland and contains some of the best hardwood reserves in Europe.
