As an environmentalist, I was looking forward to the government response to the greening of the Tories. Indeed, I thought Mr Brown’s incentives for sustainable housing scored better than Mr Cameron’s taxing the skies approach.
I wish I could be so positive about the announcement of a change in timber purchasing policy. It raises the bar before the athletes even leave the changing room.
In 2000 the government announced its intention to purchase at least legal and preferably sustainable timber. But it was not until 2004 that the Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET) was resourced and staffed.
The advice from CPET’s ProForest consultants has been, in general, sensible and practical, including model contracts, workshops and an excellent helpline. Their work with some underperforming certification schemes has resulted in real improvements in certification standards across the world.
But the missing ingredient has been implementation by government departments. Currently demand for certified timber is about 10% of the total and, while we see a small premium for some sawn hardwood, the expected flood of orders has not occurred.
The government accepts that there is a problem in its Sustainable Procurement Action Plan report: “Since 2000 the UK timber supply side has significantly increased the volume of certified timber for sale but that is not being matched by demand from the public sector.”
But, instead of recommending tougher implementation, it raises the requirements so that from April 2009 only timber and timber products originating either from independently verified legal and sustainable sources or from a licensed FLEGT partner will be used on the government estate.
The market is in danger of becoming confused again and, worse, suppliers we have been working with in the Timber Trade Action Plan to get verified legal timber may find themselves excluded from the UK market if they are not in an EU FLEGT partner country.
If this happens, the fight against illegal logging will lose a powerful driver – the market – and our suppliers will switch to less discriminating buyers! I wonder if this is what the government intended…