The Timber Trade Federation and Finnforest UK are have denounced Greenpeace‘s call for a boycott of Indonesian timber.

The comments follow a protest by Greenpeace at a Home Office construction site in Marsham Street, London, in which the group alleged that plywood being used by the contractor Bouygues for hoarding and shuttering was based on illegally felled Indonesian timber.

Finnforest UK managing director John Tong Finnforest was chairing the Timber Trade Federation’s (TTF) workshop on Indonesia in London, which brought together major stakeholders linked to the UK-Indonesian timber trade, on the day the Greenpeace protest started.

He said that a boycott of Indonesia would be counter-productive and that only by encouraging responsible trading though market pressure can the country’s forestry future be guaranteed.

He said that Finnforest would consider dropping Indonesian products if the country did not improve its environmental performance, but said that progress was being made, partly thanks to Finnforest and other UK companies individually and via the TTF working with Indonesian suppliers.

“A recent TTF mission to Indonesia, including Finnforest’s environmental manager Rachael Butler, consulted with many different organisations and stakeholders, including government, environmental NGOs, Indonesian traders and donor organisations,” he said.

&#8220Whatever problems Indonesia’s forestry sector is facing, it would be wholly irresponsible to boycott a particular market place”

TTF’s head of public affairs Mark O’Brien

“Through our support for the UK/Indonesia Memorandum of Understanding on illegal logging and the Timber Trade Federation Code of Conduct we are already committed to playing our part in promoting legal and sustainable exports from Indonesia.”

The TTF’s head of public affairs Mark O’Brien agreed with Mr Tong. “Whatever problems Indonesia’s forestry sector is facing, it would be wholly irresponsible to boycott a particular market place.”

The Greenpeace activists abandoned their protest on Thursday June 5. It had lasted over 24 hours and involved hanging banners from 40m cranes and surrounding the site with FSC-certified plywood placards. They called it off after home office minister Lord Filkin ordered an inquiry into the source of the plywood used on the site.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Home Office contractors are required to procure all the wood for a project in accordance with government agreed guidelines. However, Lord Filkin has asked for a full investigation into the allegations made by Greenpeace that the government may have inadvertently sponsored wood produced from unsustainable forests in Indonesia. Any lessons learned will inform future Home Office timber procurement policy.”