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Where does your wood come from?

WWF investigates: how can we trace wood products sold in the UK back to the forest they came from?

•  Read the full report (updated 11 Feb 2011)
  
• Certified vs uncertified wood: see our illustrated guide

When managed responsibly, wood is a renewable resource that can provide a sustainable income for forest communities in places like Indonesia and the Congo. That in turn helps keep forests healthy for future generations of people, and for the countless amazing species that live there. So it’s important to know that the wood and paper we buy has been responsibly sourced.

That’s where forest certification helps. The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo lets you know that a product has been tracked through the supply chain from its original source and tells you it’s from a responsibly managed forest. But a lot of wood products we buy are not certified. So where are those coming from, and what does it mean for people and forests there?

That’s what we’ve been asking the industry on your behalf for this report. We set out to track three household products, made of tropical timber and sold in the UK, back to their source in the rainforest.

A new EU law coming into force in early 2013 will mean anyone intending to sell timber products into the UK market will have to be able show where it’s come from and that it isn’t illegal. Our report suggests that UK businesses are a long way from meeting the demands of that new law.

• Illegal logging – short-term gain, long-term pain

We all need to be putting more pressure on suppliers to show evidence of where their wood goods originate. As consumers, an easy first step is to demand that shops sell responsibly-sourced FSC-certified wood products. We need the government to push businesses in the right direction too.

‘Green’ claims are not always what they seem

There are a lot of misleading claims about the source and sustainability of the tropical timber we’re being sold. One of the main reasons FSC was set up (which WWF was involved in from the start in 1993) was to provide assurance that the wood goods we buy come from well managed forests.

All businesses that harvest, transport or trade in FSC-certified timber must have FSC ‘Chain of Custody’ certification that they can pass on to the retailer or customer as a guarantee for specific FSC products. This chain of custody shows you they have systems in place that can deal with FSC products. But it doesn’t automatically mean that all the products they sell are FSC-certified!

We found that some companies’ websites will show off the FSC logo next to their products – for example decking sourced from Indonesia – but on closer enquiry it turns out the FSC decking is only available for ‘special orders’ and the vast majority of the tropical timber decking they sell is non-FSC.

This is potentially very misleading. It undermines the FSC system, which is designed to give you, as consumers, the confidence that you’re buying a responsibly-sourced product.

FSC has strict rules on how a company can promote their FSC products and any ambiguous claims should be reported to trademark@fsc-uk.org.

• Read our tips for businesses – how to make sure your wood and paper supplies are sound

Some UK companies make false claims about the checks they make on their timber. One company we investigated claimed that it “seeks evidence of compliance from suppliers that they are operating in accordance with the laws of their country” – but when we probed further it turns out they don’t make any checks on their suppliers at all.

This is really bad. They’re making false promises to consumers, who are led to believe that the products they’re buying are legally sourced when in fact they could be from anywhere! In the meantime, rainforests in the Congo Basin are suffering as the demand for timber continues – no matter how it’s been obtained.

• Shoppers: how can you make sure you’re choosing good wood?
  

FSC-certified wood is good

Unlike some of the other timber products we investigated, FSC-certified timber products can be traced through the supply chain. We asked several retailers to show us where their FSC-certified timber flooring, decking and kitchen worktops came from, and they provided us with full supply chain information, tracking the product right back to the FSC-certified forest it came from.

• FSC – good for forests, good for people

We’re pretty lucky in the UK – our timber market has one of the best supplies of FSC wood in the world. So it’s relatively easy for British companies to make sure they’re buying FSC.

But they do need constant pressure from the public to keep them sourcing responsibly – and of course they need customers to buy their FSC goods!

Make sure you always choose wood and paper that carries the FSC logo, and if you don’t see it, ask the seller if they can source an FSC version of the product. The message will get through.

It’s not enough just to know wood has been logged legally. Legal timber isn’t necessarily always sustainable! It could still have come from forests that have been clear-felled – devastating for the environment – rather than selectively harvested, as FSC certified forests are. Or some tree species may have been over-harvested, which ruins the long term viability of the forest as a resource, or disturbed so much that it loses all value, either for production or as a natural habitat.

By choosing FSC-certified forest products, you can be sure where they’ve come from, and that they won’t have been harvested in a way that causes irreversible damage to forests, people and wildlife.

Where does your wood come from? Read our report.

Read the report now

What Wood You Choose? Tracking forest products on sale in the UK back to their forest sources. (Updated 11 Feb 2011)

New 2012 Government Barometer report

Read our 2012 Government Barometer report on illegal timber trade in Europe

Useful links

• Wood buying tips for shoppers
• Wood buying tips for businesses
• Certified vs uncertified wood - an illustrated guide

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