Procurement officers and suppliers of wood to the UK public sector are under mounting pressure to conform to the government’s timber procurement policy. This requires that wood is from verified legal sources and prefers wood independently certified to one or other of the leading schemes – including the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) schemes, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Program.
But contacts with the UK wood industry* indicate a clear split in the market for certified products. That for certified softwood lumber, OSB and MDF is characterised by well-developed distribution networks and wide availability. However, distribution networks for certified hardwood lumber and plywood products are still poorly developed.
Producers of softwood lumber, OSB and MDF in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, and Finland, are offering UK distributors FSC- or PEFC-certified product as standard without a price premium. Most woodlands in these countries have been certified for several years, with smaller forest owners in Finland and Sweden mainly certified to the PEFC standard, the state forests of the UK and Ireland under the FSC scheme and the large industry forests in Sweden certified to both. Chain of custody certification is also well established throughout the softwood, OSB and MDF sectors. In fact, so developed is the sector that some suppliers are aiming for 100% certified stock, and putting pressure on customers to move in the same direction.
Availability of certified joinery redwood from Russia has been more difficult, but this changed in 2005. The UK’s large importers of Russian softwood have been encouraging Russian shippers down the certification route and one says that its largest Russian supplier, capable of producing 100,000m3 of sawn lumber each year, is now supplying around 40% of total production as FSC certified.
Availability of certified carcassing whitewood from the Baltic states is patchy. All Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian state forests, accounting for 55% of the region’s total resources, are FSC certified. However, in the absence of a reliable price premium or consistent demand for certified products, only a minority of private owners and processing companies have been active in the market.
Certified hardwood lumber and plywood can be obtained in the UK, but buyers often have to pay extra for a more restricted species range and have to accept extended delivery times.
There are several reasons for this. On the supply side, UK hardwood imports mainly derive from areas that have been slow to certify. A lack of infrastructure, land tenure and political problems have meant limited progress in the tropics. Fragmentation of forest ownership and industry has meant á Ü limited certification of temperate hardwood forests, notably in the US which accounts for around one-third of material supplied to the UK. So there has not been the same ‘push’ from hardwood suppliers to develop markets for certified products as in the softwood sector.
On the demand side, the UK is a relatively small player in international hardwood lumber and plywood markets, each year consuming around 700,000m3 of hardwood plywood and 350,000m3 of high value hardwood logs and sawn lumber, compared to 10 million m3 of sawn softwoods. So there has not been the same ‘pull’ through.
Many UK importers hold small quantities of FSC-certified American hardwoods in stock to satisfy occasional demand. Although only a number of American exporters supply these, they are available in the full range of species and sizes, with the exception of American black walnut. It is typical for suppliers of FSC-certified American hardwoods to require payment of a premium, ranging from 3-11% depending on species and current levels of availability. Certified stocks of walnut are difficult to obtain mainly because this is a very fashionable species. In fact, it readily achieves premium prices irrespective of certification status.
FSC-certified oak can be obtained from Poland and Germany, where it is offered with little or no price premium, and PEFC certified oak is available from Germany and France, either as standard or for a small premium. FSC-certified Croatian sawn oak lumber is just becoming available. European beech may also be obtained PEFC certified as standard, or FSC certified on payment of a 3-5% premium.
Obtaining certified tropical hardwoods is more of a challenge. FSC certification has been increasing in Brazil, but the Brazilian Amazon is a difficult operational environment with poor infrastructure and irregular log supply. Some species – including jatoba, tatajuba, garapa, cumaru, angelin pedra, red louro and massaranduba – can be obtained FSC certified, but supplies are erratic and high price premiums tend to be demanded. Importers also have to allow long lead teams with no guarantee that products will arrive.
Malaysian meranti sawn lumber certified by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) is relatively easy to source at a small premium. MTCC is recognised by the UK government as conforming with its criteria for verification of legality. Small volumes of MTCC-certified hardwood plywood are now also becoming available. Availability of other certified Asian hardwoods is limited, although there have been reports of efforts to market small volumes of FSC-certified Indonesian plywood in the UK.
There are no sources of independently certified African tropical hardwoods. This has created real problems for UK joinery which has become heavily dependent on a limited range of species, most notably sapele and iroko, for high-end applications. However, prospects for at least one regular supply improved during 2005 with the announcement by CIB, a large concession holder in the Republic of the Congo, to pursue FSC certification. Meanwhile, other large European companies operating concessions in Africa are developing procedures to offer independent assurances of legal origin as a first step towards forest certification. The first supplies of “legally verified” African tropical hardwoods appeared in the UK in 2005. Availability is expected to continue to improve during 2006.
Another important factor in the availability of certified wood products in the UK is the internal operational concerns of UK importers and distributors. There are significant costs associated with managing stocks carrying a variety of labels, particularly for products like plywood that may also require CE marking to conform with the European Construction Products Directive. This means where supplies are limited importers have little incentive to carry much, or any certified product.
∑ This article draws on research undertaken by Forest Industries Intelligence Ltd for the Department for International Development involving biannual reports to assess and track markets for certified timber in the UK. Reports can be downloaded at www.ttf.co.uk
