Governments and green woods

An interesting comparison can be drawn today between air travel and the wood industry. Years ago one could turn up at any airport and catch a flight at short notice and with no trouble. Travel by plane was a relaxing and, for most people, a pleasurable experience - but not today. Long queues at security checkpoints, uncomfortable body searches, removal of laptops, some clothes and even shoes, as well as impersonal security staff are now the norm - enforced by airlines and governments and re-enforced by laws.

Years ago landowners and foresters could grow trees commercially for sale to the forest products industry with relative ease. Sawmillers would buy logs and sell lumber to manufacturers who made everything from furniture to flooring. For large regions of the world this was done on a sustainable basis for generations, because the forest products industry, more than anyone else, has always had the motivation to sustain its raw material or go out of business. But in both air travel and the forest products industry, the ease of operation for the majority has been ruined by the few - terrorists in the air and illegal operators in the forest.

Illegal logging receives much media and consumer attention these days and there is no denying that it is a problem. But just as tens of thousands of aircraft fly the global skies unthreatened every year, so have vast areas of forestland been managed sustainably throughout the world. In North America, Scandinavia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and elsewhere, particularly in countries where the rule of law is upheld, illegal logging is a minor problem. In the US, for example, an independent study several years ago established that there is a less than one percentage chance of any illegal logs entering the trade chain. In such countries often the risk is limited to minor border disputes between landowners rather than theft.

However, environmental non-government organisations (NGOs) were right to sound the warning in their campaigns to alert the world to non-sustainable forestry practices in some parts of the globe, although the solutions they found were mainly in countries where sustainability has been practised for decades. Only 9% of the world's forests are certified as sustainable, with the majority in temperate countries where sustainability has been practised for decades. Regular US Forest Service inventories demonstrate that between 1953 and 2007, the volume of US hardwood growing stock more than doubled from 5.21 billion m3 to 11.32 billionm3. There was a 15% increase in growing stock between 1997 and 2007 despite strong growth in demand for hardwoods during this period.

Now the energies of NGOs and their co-operation with forest industries appear to be diverted somewhat in a way perhaps they did not entirely expect. Governments, particularly in the northern industrialised hemisphere, which initially encouraged but failed to persuade NGOs and certification organisations to work together to achieve mutual recognition for the common good, have now taken control - at least for their international and some domestic trade in wood.

Governments are now making new timber trading laws like never before and here lie several problems. First and foremost is the fact that the vast majority of timber harvested does not cross international borders, so the influence of foreign governments on their supply countries is limited. Second, the disruption of trade and consequent loss of badly needed foreign earnings can result in the conversion of forests to other commercial uses such as agriculture, cattle-raising and oil palm plantations. Third, the increased association in the minds of consumers about crime related to wood undermines consumer confidence already badly damaged by NGOs, uninformed teachers and attention-seeking media who have misrepresented wood for years.

Interpol action
With regard to international influence, even Interpol is being drafted in by the UN with funding provided by the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation. According to the BBC, the two organisations have joined forces to launch an initiative to tackle global forest crime. Project Leaf will target criminals involved in illegal logging and timber trafficking. The scheme will also provide support to enforcement agencies in countries with the biggest problems. David Higgins, Interpol's environmental crime programme manager, said that illegal logging was no longer an issue that was restricted by national boundaries. "The international legislation to protect forests and curtail illegal logging demonstrates this," he said. "Project Leaf will ensure these global laws are supported by global enforcement and that the criminals responsible are brought to justice - no matter their location, movements or resources."

"Collusive corruption and fraud in the forestry sector undermines the rule of law and... significantly hampers efforts to tackle poverty among the world's poorest people," said Interpol. It added that, in order to be an effective force against criminal activity, it would be necessary for any action to be "co-ordinated, collaborative and transnational".

Undermining consumer confidence in wood can also lead to unexpected environmental consequences, as happened when Friends of the Earth (FoE) in the UK campaigned against the use of wood for replacement windows some years ago. Once the environmental damage of using PVCu as an alternative for windows was properly understood, FoE then launched a reverse campaign to consumers to use wooden windows from sustainable sources.

If governments continue to act in a lopsided way, by not actively promoting the use of well-managed and sustainable wood, but merely threatening timber traders who cannot control their overseas sources, then the use of wood in industrial countries may diminish to the detriment of all society.

Life cycle analysis
What is the justification for such a statement? There is increasing and irrefutable scientific evidence, accepted by professionals, that wood as the lowest impact on the environment in terms of energy consumption, industrial pollution and carbon footprint. In many cases where carbon is stored in wood products and buildings, more carbon is taken out of the atmosphere than is generated by harvesting, processing, transporting and converting timber to useable products. That cannot be said for steel, glass and concrete, all of which claim credit for recycling but ignore full life cycle analysis (LCA) based on science.

Governments need to add this element to their current campaigns to eradicate illegally harvested wood - a fine objective but incomplete in environmental terms. The US government's Lacey Act Amendment, the new European Union Timber Regulations (EUTR), the forthcoming Illegal Logging Bill in Australia, export licensing legislation under Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) in Indonesia and Vietnam are all engaging governments and complicating normal trade in timber. No problem with that, if accompanied by vigorous government promotion of good wood.

A recent example of the failure to recognise the importance of good wood now stares us in the face on British TV during the 2012 summer Olympics and thereafter as the London Olympic Park receives future tourists. The Games were billed by UK government agencies as the "greenest games in history" and the media is now awash - from The Times of London to The Times of India - with statements about energy saving, use of waste water, recycled packaging for hamburgers and much more, but nothing on wood material.

Two of the many reported accolades for the magnificent velodrome by Hopkins Architects are as follows: "The velodrome is almost 100% naturally ventilated and uses natural light to reduce energy consumption and rainwater will be collected from the roof for flushing toilets and irrigation"; and "fans will watch cycling greats in a showpiece energy-efficient, naturally ventilated arena, half the weight of the Beijing velodrome".

No mention can be found of the fact that the London velodrome uses sustainable wood from certified sources and stores carbon, which cannot be said of any of the other materials used in the construction of many of the Olympic structures. What a missed opportunity to acknowledge the importance of using sustainable wood! One might even go further to suggest that the £19m, 115m-high iconic ArcelorMittal Orbit Olympic tower structure, which is made from high energy-consuming steel and included £3m of public funding, obligated at least an acknowledgement from the UK government as to the benefits of wood used elsewhere at the Park. In fact, the entire London 2012 Olympic Park development has achieved dual Project Certification from the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for its timber usage - the first dual Project Certification in the world.

One response by the timber trade in Europe has been a recent agreement to work together more. Eleven trade bodies representing the supply chain of the forestry and timber industries have signed what has been described as "an historic Industry Accord" in order to improve competitiveness and performance across the sector.

"This Accord formalises what we have often done on an informal basis - work together for the common good of the sector and our customers," said John White, chief executive of the UK Timber Trade Federation (TTF). "This Accord will help us to act as one and show the importance of our sector to the UK economic recovery and low-carbon development."

One wonders, however, whether strength in numbers when responding to government legislation may be an unwritten objective for future co-operation. In July the TTF also issued a statement "Businesses in the UK and Ireland have less than eight months to prepare for the new EU Timber Regulation. The Regulation will prohibit the placing of illegal timber products onto the EU market in an effort to tackle the illegal timber trade... We are, however, concerned that many businesses may not be doing what is necessary to prepare in time due to lack of awareness or resources." The TTF has made due diligence a compulsory condition of membership through its proprietary Responsible Purchasing Policy which is free to all members. The EUTR, due for implementation in March 2013, however, will not exempt anyone first placing timber and wood products in the EU's 27 member countries.

However laudable their efforts to eradicate illegal timber, the bottom line for all governments introducing new legislation for wood is to go one small step further and to recommend honestly to industry and consumers the importance of using sustainably managed wood as opposed to other less environmentallyfriendly materials wherever possible.