EU to ban illegal timber from 2012

Jul 7, 2010, 17:20 GMT

   Strasbourg, France - Timber harvested illegally anywhere in the world is to be banned for sale in the European Union from 2012, after the European Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a crackdown.

   The EU had long criticized the practice, but until now had not established laws against it.

'This law hangs up a 'closed for business' sign to a destructive market,' said Sebastien Risso, a forestry expert with the environmental group Greenpeace. 'It promises to level the playing field so legitimate companies and customers are better able to act sustainably.'

   European Parliament members voted by a margin of 644 to just 25 to approve new laws that will effectively ban the marketing and sale of illegally harvested timber and wood products across the 27-member bloc.

'Illegal logging often causes serious environmental damage and undermines the efforts of those who are trying to manage forests responsibly ... The parliament's vote today brings us a lot closer to remedying this situation,' EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said.

   The laws will cover both importers into the EU and companies further down the supply chain, obliging them to make sure that their products - whether raw wood or finished goods - come only from wood that was felled and exported legally.

   Importers additionally will have to set up a full 'due diligence'' system to prove to customers and EU regulators that their wood comes from reputable sources.

'EU consumers have unwittingly been subsidising the illegal destruction of forests around the world,' said Greek Socialist parliament member Kriton Arsenis, his party's spokesman on the issue. 'The new regulation covers the whole timber supply chain, from logging sites all the way to European consumers.'

The rules allow for EU member states to fine companies caught importing illegal timber. However, they do not include minimum penalties, after national governments resisted the idea.

   Forests around the world are shrinking by some 13 million hectares per year, and up to 40 per cent of that is estimated to be caused by illegal logging. Deforestation as a whole is reckoned to cause 20 per cent of worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions.

According to parliament figures, at least 20 per cent of the wood entering the EU comes from illegal sources.

To the embarrassment of European leaders, that has included wood used in government buildings. Environmental groups say that the British government used illegal wood to refurbish its properties in 2002, 2003 and 2006, and that Spain did so in 2005.

The EU's executive, the European Commission, meanwhile, was left red-faced when it was revealed that it had used illegal wood to refit its Brussels headquarters in 2004. The body ultimately had to pay an environmental fine.