The government is committed to strengthening the ‘wood-using culture among UK consumers’.
This was the message delivered to the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) annual dinner last week by forestry minister Elliott Morley.
Mr Morley was not among the scheduled speakers at the event in the Natural History Museum in London, but asked to attend to acknowledge the importance the government attaches to the timber industry’s role in ‘pushing forward sustainable construction in the UK’.
The government wants to work increasingly in ‘partnership’ with the TTF to increase consumer confidence in timber. And a key to achieving the latter, said Mr Morley, was communicating the industry’s environmental and technical performance.
‘In this respect, I’ve already been impressed with the wood. for good campaign; its delivery of technical information to customers and message that tree-felling in properly managed forests is wholly sustainable,’ he said.
The government also sees third party environmental certification of timber as vital to its sustainable construction initiatives. ‘And it’s encouraging that now 40% of our forests are certified under the UK Woodland Assurance Scheme,’ he said. ‘This led to the presentation to the Forestry Commission of a Worldwide Fund for Nature Gift to the Earth Award and, in receiving it, FC director-general David Bills commended the support of partners in its certification programme, particularly the TTF.’
He also thanked the TTF for the advice and information it had given the Department of International Development to help in its efforts to curb illegal logging around the world.
Other key-note speakers at the dinner, which was attended by a capacity 650 people, were president Philip Underwood and Travis Perkins chief executive Frank McKay. Both stressed the importance of the TTF’s upcoming Codes of Conduct and Practice for the future development of the Federation and the industry.
