Tuesday 22 November 2005

Failing the Forests - the EU's Illegal Timber Trade, shows that the UK trade is responsible for the destruction of around 600,000 hectares of forests each year - nearly three times the size of Luxembourg.

The report, which focuses on the trade between EU countries and the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin, East Africa, Indonesia, the Baltic States and Russia, found that the EU is responsible for around €3 billion of the global €10-15 billion in lost revenue due to illegal logging each year. As Ministers meet to consider measures to tackle illegal logging in Brussels today, WWF is calling for new EU wide legislation to prohibit the importation of illegally logged timber.

Andrew Lee, Director of Campaigns for WWF, said: "The UK has made poverty a central plank of its EU presidency yet its consumption of illegal timber is robbing countries such as Cameroon and Indonesia of invaluable income. Large scale illegal logging often deprives local communities who rely on forests for their livelihoods, whilst big international companies reap the profits."

Failing the Forests says that the EU trade could contribute to large scale depletion of timber in some areas and loss of forests, especially in the Congo and Indonesia, in 10 years time. Each year the EU imports roughly 20 million cubic metres of illegal timber from the six key forests the report focuses on.

Whilst the UK is the biggest importer of illegal timber in Europe, when both illegal timber and pulp and paper are combined it is the third worst in Europe, behind Finland and Sweden respectively.

WWF believes current EU proposals to tackle illegal logging are inadequate. The Forests Law Enforcement Governance & Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, which promotes voluntary agreements between the EU and timber producer countries, has a number of critical loopholes. It does not prevent timber being imported into the EU through third countries such as China and it also doesn't include all types of timber - pulp, paper and furniture all being excluded from the scheme.

WWF is also calling on the EU to take far more active steps to encourage other major producers such as China, Japan and the US to eliminate illegal timber from their own imports.

Beatrix Richards, Senior Forests Policy Officer, said: "The UK must use its influence to ensure the EU takes much tougher action to eliminate the illegal timber trade. Failing to do so is failing the forests"