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Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Mr. Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action her Department is taking to reduce the amount of tropical plywood used in the United Kingdom. [143221] Mr. Morley: The Government are committed to sustainable forest management and is playing a leading role in international negotiations on forests in a number of fora, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF). The Government are also playing a major role internationally to combat illegal logging and its associated trade, in addition to seeking to ensure that the import of endangered timber species is in compliance with CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Under EU law, a ban on the import of illegally logged timber can only be imposed at EU level. We are therefore playing an active role within the European Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process. On 13 October the EU Council of Ministers adopted Council Conclusions providing a broad endorsement of the FLEGT Action Plan, which addresses development co-operation, trade in timber, public procurement, private sector initiatives, financing and investment safeguards, money laundering and conflict timber The Government are also keen to discourage consumers from purchasing illegally logged timber. For over three years UK central departments and their executive agencies have been required to actively seek to purchase their timber and timber related products from legal and sustainable sources. We believe the UK to be the first country to implement such a policy. The challenge is considerable and implementation has not been without difficulty, but already the effect is being felt in the UK and abroad. The UK Devolved Administrations and many local authorities in England have indicated that they have adopted similar policies or are considering doing so. Additionally, the UK Timber Trade Federation is developing a sustainable timber procurement policy for its members to consider adopting.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

143221; 415 c907-8W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Forestry EU action Import controls Imports Procurement Sustainable development Timber Forest products

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk