Defra confident new procurement rules will maintain timber supplies

Defra has said it does not expect the addition of “social criteria” to the UK government public timber procurement policy to have a negative impact on its ability to buy timber.

But it has also admitted it has not examined all the forest certification schemes to check compliance with the new criteria and said it was up to the schemes and producers to meet the new requirements.

Environment minister Hilary Benn announced the widening of the policy from a requirement for legal and sustainable timber to the addition of social criteria relating to indigenous forest dwellers and forest workers – including respect of forest tenure rights and dispute resolution mechanisms – two weeks ago.

“The larger schemes [FSC and PEFC] have already indicated that they will be able to meet the criteria and are taking steps to update,” said a Defra spokesperson.

“We haven’t looked at all the schemes so we have no evidence that those schemes might not comply. This is about our choice as a consumer. It’s for the schemes to meet our new requirements.”

Thorsten Arndt, PEFC International’s head of communications, said PEFC’s social criteria was strengthened at the organisation’s general assembly last November, but he thought the short time until implementation on April 1 could be a challenge if certification schemes needed to make changes.

Sheam Satkuru-Granzella, director of the London office of the Malaysian Timber Council, said the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme included social criteria, but she thought it was not fair for the government to hold schemes responsible for the issue, which could have an impact on tropical timber producing countries.

“We can’t expect forest certification schemes to have governmental authority in enforcement in social issues because it’s beyond their mandate.”

Forest certification schemes will be assessed for compliance to new requirements in March, while the Central Point for Expertise on Timber’s (CPET) guidance documents on assessment of evidence of compliance will be updated over the coming months. CPET is also consulting on new clarifying guidance criteria on national level application of international forest certification schemes.