Greenpeace protestors occupied a Home Office construction site in London this morning claiming that the plywood used for shuttering and hoarding was based on illegal timber from Indonesia.
In a mirror-image of their ‘action’ at the Cabinet Office last year, 11 activists climbed scaffolding and a crane at the 2 Marsham Street site and lowered banners. These read “Rainforest Demolition Site”. Around 60 other protestors gathered around the building.
Speaking from the demonstration, Greenpeace forest campaigner John Sauven said the shuttering plywood had been sourced from Raja Garunda Mas (RGM), which it claimed was implicated in felling lowland rainforest in Sumatra, while the hoarding material came from Sumalindo Lestari Jaya, a company, Greenpeace alleges, with a record of treating its workers poorly. Other material came from Korindo said Mr Sauven.
Asked by TTJ whether the plywood carried these companies’ brand, Mr Sauven said he “thought it did”. “But we have all the documentation and the contractor Bouygues have held their hands up and confirmed the sources,” he said.
In a press statement, Greenpeace said that the government was not abiding by pledges to procure timber and wood products for its construction projects from renewable sources.
It quoted environment minister Michael Meacher as saying: “Government procurement policy on timber applies to all wood and products made from wood used in performing government contracts. That includes the wood used temporarily during construction works as well as wood fixed as part of a finished structure.”
Home Office spokesperson Mat Brook said that the government was confident that all joinery and construction timber used in the Marsham Street development was sustainably sourced and third party certified. “We are now looking into the origins of the shuttering and hoarding material,” he said.
At the time of publication, no comment was available from the London office of Bouygues.
