Coalition Government Waters Down Illegal Timber Pledge

The government, in a correspondence from Forestry Minister James Paice to Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP, has said that it would not pursue legislation to make it a criminal offence to possess, or bring into the country, illegal timber because of the progress of ‘strong and proportionate’ European legislative proposals. The result of this is that timber merchants, joinery manufacturers and distributors will not face prosecution if they handle illegally harvested timber. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed that it would no longer seek a ban in the light of the progress of European due diligence legislation, instead seeking to put in place, ‘a robust and effective enforcement regime, including criminal penalties, to implement the [European] regulation’, which will focus on the first point of entry on to the EU market. The EU legislation, confirmed in July and expected to take effect in late 2012, will make it an offence to place illegally harvested timber or timber products on the EU market but it does not make it an offence for anyone further down the supply chain to handle illegal timber.  Member States will be responsible for applying sanctions to operators who break the rules with the legislation setting out guidelines for imposing fines. Currently, at least 20% of timber and timber products reaching the EU market is estimated to come from illegal sources. Mr Paice’s letter signifies something of a dilution in government policy. After the US made the import of illegal timber illegal last November with the introduction of the Lacey Act, the then shadow foreign secretary William Hague, promised that a Tory government would, ‘introduce new criminal offences under UK law for the import and possession of illegal timber’, on top of any strengthened EU directive, in order to “send a message to the rest of Europe that we are ready to lead on closing the market to illegal timber”. The coalition government document, which set out the coalition’s programme for government  also explicitly committed the two parties to introducing “measures to make the import or possession of illegal timber a criminal offence.” In letters to Lucas and other backbenchers, Mr Paice wrote:
‘We should also recognise that much illegal timber comes into the country through negligence rather than deliberate criminal activity’, adding that, ‘There is little to be gained by initiating additional (and duplicative) UK legislation in this area.’ Ms Lucas has since criticised the coalition government for reneging on its promise to bring in legislation banning the import and possession of illegal timber in the supply chain, saying that stronger legal measures are necessary to help protect the 350m-650m square metres of forest that is illegally logged every year. Concerns include the possibility that unscrupulous operators might set up ‘shell’ companies to import illegal timber, and that the weak sanctions and variable enforcement from some member states would make it easy for illegal timber to be sold in the EU market, after which there would be little that the authorities in the destination member state could do on account of the lack of legislation banning possession of the material throughout the supply chain. Mr Paice said he was confident the that EU regulation’s focus on the importer would stop illegal timber coming into the UK. He said the setting up of shell companies would be an illegal activity and the UK could punish offenders using the EU regulation.