Smee Timber Group has taken delivery of what is believed to be the first Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified logs from Central Africa to arrive in the UK.
Some 95m³ of logs from the Congo arrived at Smee’s Winsford Sawmills site in four containers.
The logs formed part of a consignment shipped to Europe from the Kabo forest concession in the Republic of Congo, the largest FSC-certified concession in tropical Africa, managed by Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB).
They are being processed and will provide the furniture, joinery and hardwood trade with sustainable African timber.
Species include khaya, iroko, sapele and utile, measuring 80cm-plus in diameter and 7m-plus in length in B and Better grade. The timber will be kiln dried to specific requirements.
“Companies like the John Lewis Partnership and Bovis are looking for certified products and this will offer the trade an opportunity to satisfy the needs of such companies,” said Smee Timber director Ron Taylor.
“This is a first step and shows reward for the considerable time, effort and money that CIB has put into this programme of certification finally achieved in May 2006.”
“This is good news,” added FSC UK’s construction adviser Beck Woodrow. “FSC-certified tropical timber is in high demand, and these are species which have never been available from an FSC forest until now.”
Richard Robertson, FSC UK’s forest standards manager, was in Congo when the FSC certificate was awarded to CIB.
“FSC certification is now really starting to move in the Congo Basin, one of the most important and challenging areas for the implementation of responsible forest management on the planet,” said Mr Robertson.
