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Home improvement giant bans illegal wood products mongabay.com July 8, 2007
Environmentalists say the announcement, made in June, is an important step to improving the sustainability of forestry products. "We are pleased to see that B&Q China are following their UK counterparts and are responding to these issues," said forest campaigner Mariana Paoli at Greenpeace UK. "We hope that other companies in China will follow suit." "Unless all companies that trade in timber products make concerted efforts, like B&Q, to clean up the timber trade and ensure that their wood comes from ecologically responsible sources, they will inadvertently contribute to global deforestation and to climate change," added Greenpeace China's Campaign Director Lo Sze Ping. Greenpeace estimates that China consumes nearly 10% of Amazonian timber exported by Brazil. The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) says that the volume of products traded grew from 6,100 tons to almost 80,000 tons from 1999 to 2006. B&Q also said it has stopped selling merbau -- a dark red wood grown in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia -- for flooring. Earlier this year China unveiled guidelines for the establishment of sustainable forest plantations abroad by Chinese firms. In April the State Forestry Administration said it would begin the process of selecting companies to implement the guidelines, which include bans on illegal logging and clearing of natural forests for plantations, on a "trial basis," according to ITTO. The guidelines are significant as China plays an increasingly important role in resource extraction in forests around the world.
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