John Nelson from the NGO Forest People's Programme asks:
Most DIY enthusiasts would be shocked to find that their new garden decking helped to increase the poverty of hunter-gatherer communities in the Congo Basin of Central Africa.What about the recently purchased hardwood table and chairs? Did these come from a 300-year-old tree that, until cut down for export to Europe, supplied a hundred poor people in Cameroon with oil, protein and medicine?
Armed with this knowledge, would the customers' new furniture be quite so comfortable?" -- BBC
It is now quite common to see wood certified with the FSC mark in British shops, an accreditation accepted by Friends of the Earth as
...the only scheme that fulfils all requirements for a credible forest certification scheme, and is the only one recommended by Fauna & Flora International and Friends of the Earth. -- FOESo what is the problem?
According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, an NGO based in London, the market for illegal wood in the UK is massive.
According to a scary WWF report from January 2007,The crime of illegal logging costs developing countries up to £7.5 billion a year through the theft of public assets and non payment of taxes.
The European Union (EU) is one the world's biggest markets for timber and wood products; and imports around £2 billion worth of illegally sourced wood every year.
The UK is the largest importer of illegal wood in the EU; and the third largest in the world (after China and Japan). It is estimated that the UK imports around 3.2 million cubic metres of stolen timber a year, worth around £700 million. -- Receiving Stolen Goods: Why the UK must Legislate Against Trade in Illegal Timber
The NGO Chatham House has a lot of useful resources on this subject at their website.The UK spends an estimated £712 million (US$1.4bn) on illegal timber and wood products per year – the equivalent of £11.76 per person in the UK. This equates to 7.2% of the total value of forest product imports (£9.9bn) in 2005.
It is estimated that the most significant proportion of the illegal trade – more than 65% of all illegal imports – goes into the construction sector. -- Illegal Logging: cut it out! The UK's role in the trade in illegal timber and wood products (PDF)
Responsible consuming with respect to wood demands that we take action on the waste caused by the use of illegal timber. We must support those who campaign to protect the forest people. We must demand that suppliers, particularly in construction, have open and sustainable timber sourcing policies. We must hold to account our local, national and federal government departments to ensure that large construction projects use legal and sustainable timber.
And perhaps we need to think carefully before choosing the next piece of fashionable flat-packed furniture. We need to look harder to find local wood products or even used furniture.
Our future depends on it.
Further Reading:
