November 2001
The Timber Trade Federation has lodged a complaint with the Independent Television Commission against Nikon UK Limited, which launched a television advertising campaign on 16 November 2001. The campaign, which is planned to run for a month is being transmitted across ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and selected satellite channels.
In the advert a timber yard is shown with the caption " The Last Rainforest". The clear implication is that the timber industry is responsible for tropical deforestation and that the world's rainforests are about to cease to exist.
The recent report of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation published last month indicates that major causes of deforestation are: conversion to other land uses (mainly agriculture), pests and diseases, fire, overexploitation of forest products (industrial wood, fuel wood), poor harvesting practices, overgrazing, air pollution and storms. The reasons behind this process involve many complex cultural, economic and political factors.
The UK Timber Trade Federation backs sustainable forest management, which continues to gain momentum across the world in spite of challenging local circumstances in many tropical countries. The Timber Trade Federation is working closely with the UK Government to promote sustainable forestry in the developing world in spite of the fact that only a small proportion of tropical timber imports enter the UK, estimated at approximately 8%.
This advertisement is based on a complete distortion of the facts and is unfairly damaging to the UK timber importing sector, which sources its timber from legal and well managed sources mainly from Scandinavia and North America.
EU Directive Attacked By TTF
The TTF has condemned the EU Physical Agents Directive (Vibration), which could restrict the hours worked by those operating vibrating equipment despite a lack of evidence that it is damaging to health.
Earlier this year the European Council set a common position limit of 1.15 metres per second squared (m/s/s) for Whole Body Vibration, which was then reduced to 0.8 m/s/s by a vote in the European Parliament despite a lack of evidence that this limit would reduce the risk of lower back pain or spinal injury. When the permanent representatives met there was no agreement and the Directive has gone to Conciliation.
The Timber Trade Federation hope that Conciliation process will lead to the adoption of the original Common Position, which would not involve the restrictions to hours that would result from the 0.8 m/s/s. This lower figure could result in the average fork lift drivers hours being reduced to as little as 3.5 hours a day.
Purchasing Policy Report Shows Environmental Improvement
Forests Forever evaluated 74 annual reports from timber companies who are signatories to the 2001 Environmental Timber Purchasing Policy. The aim was to measure the overall effectiveness of the policy in encouraging environmental improvements. The results for the year 2000 were compared to results of previous years and the overall performance of companies was very encouraging.
The signatories were evaluated based on the following:
- Environmental commitment from top level management
- Efforts to work in partnership with suppliers toward environmental goals
- Traceability of timber back through the supply chain
- Evidence of good forest management
The reports demonstrated a marked increase in the proactivity of companies in implementing policy commitments and assessing the environmental credentials of suppliers. There was also a significant improvement in the quality of reporting from signatories. It was especially encouraging to note that significantly more companies are purchasing timber from independently certified sources, which is the most useful tool in providing assurances that timber comes from legal and well-managed sources.
There is however still a need to provide additional assurances where certified timber is not available and this is where the Environmental Purchasing Policy has a very important role to play in illustrating a company's commitment to sourcing its timber from well-managed forests.
For copies of the Summary Report please contact Jessica Faleiro at Forests Forever or e-mail jfaleiro@ttf.co.uk
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