September 2004

TTF and DFID Consolidate and Strengthen Partnership

30 September 2004

TTF and DFID have just agreed to extend their partnership on responsible business and illegal logging until March 2006 through a more comprehensive Framework Agreement worth £160,000.  This new agreement will enable TTF to provide further support to members on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and to undertake some market research and stakeholder engagement work.  DFID seconded Andy Roby as CSR Adviser to the TTF in September 2002 and from September 2003 funding has been on a 50:50 basis and this will now continue until March 2006.

In the past 2 years DFID has contributed an estimated £175,000 to TTF’s work on responsible business and illegal logging, including ground-breaking CSR research (which has already been incorporated into the new TTF Responsible Purchasing Policy), Cameroon legality work (via the DFID Cameroon country programme), Indonesia travel and meeting costs, and the preparation of an EU timber trade action plan. 

A TTF Spokesman Mark O’Brien said, “ Our partnership with DFID has been hugely successful, vastly outstripping the original expectations of both DFID and the Federation and we look forward to consolidating and strengthening our relationship through this agreement.”

For further information contact Andy Roby on 020 7839 1891

TTF Reports Progress Sourcing Legal Timber from Indonesia

30 September 2004

Andy Roby, TTF CSR Adviser, visited Indonesia (7-15 September) to get an update on the work of BRIK and other organisations involved in the fight against illegal logging. 

He met senior representatives of BRIK and reviewed elements of the system, which is up and running and now covers over 4,300 exporting companies.  The auditing consists of a comparison of log transport documents (SKSHH’s) supplied by the companies with those issued by the forest authorities.  As such BRIK is doing a good job and provides a necessary, if partial, check on the legality of logs.  However, to meet the UK and Dutch market’s growing demand for verified legal timber BRIK needs to assess other aspects of legality, and introduce field inspections of mills and forests, and make the governing board more independent of industry.  As a result of the visit to BRIK Andy Roby recommends that BRIK certificates be included in any legality verification standard. 

The Indonesian working definition of legality was the subject of a consultation workshop organised by TNC on the 9th September in Bogor.  Participants included many social and human rights NGO’s who were clearly grappling with these issues for the first time.  Markus Colchester of the UK-based Forest Peoples Programme presented his assessment of the legality definition. 

At the workshop Andy Roby presented the market situation in Europe and encouraged participants to endorse a working definition as soon as possible so that UK and Dutch companies can begin verification work with their Indonesian suppliers and service providers.  In the interim he recommended that certifiers and other key stakeholders agree on a Common Auditing Framework using a temporary working definition, and so identify sensible auditable steps that mills can follow to steadily exclude illegal logs from their supply chain. 

All in all Indonesia has made progress on tackling illegal logging.  Log supplies are much more restricted and those mills without long-term log supplies are beginning to reduce capacity.  In parallel with this process TTF member companies are making progress with 5 suppliers by developing Mill Action Plans with the Tropical Forest Trust to exclude illegal timber from their supply chains.  The key to the future of Indonesian plywood sales to the UK lies in establishing credible verification systems based on continuous improvement.

The ASEAN meeting was something of a milestone; it is the first time this grouping of 10 Southeast Asian countries has discussed illegal logging and provides a potential new avenue for collaboration within the region.  Andy Roby presented a market perspective with the provocative title “The Customer is King”.    

For further information please contact Andy Roby on 020 7839 1891