BRUSSELS - Greenpeace has condemned the European Commission for supporting the Timber Trade Action Plan (TTAP), due to be launched in Brussels today by Europe’s leading timber traders’ federations from the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. The TTAP is a publicly funded, voluntary industry plan that aims to stop imports of illegally logged timber into Europe, but not until 2010 [1].

Greenpeace International forests campaigner, Sue Connor, said: “This is more like an inaction plan. It just gives the European timber industry another five years to aim to be legal. The world’s last forests don’t have that time: in May it was revealed that Amazon deforestation for the year to August 2004 had reached 26,000 sq km, equivalent to six football pitches a minute [2].

“Legality should be a pre-condition of doing any business in Europe, not a vague long-term goal. It’s astonishing that the Commission is spending millions of euros in public funds to support businesses to aim to buy and sell legal timber,” she continued.

The European Union (EU) is a significant importer of timber and timber products from regions where illegal and destructive logging is rampant. Yet currently, there is no law in the EU to prohibit the importation of illegally logged timber and promote ecologically and socially responsible forest management.

“The European Commission must not wait any longer to outlaw the imports of illegally logged timber and wood products. This should be an immediate first step. The demand for cheap timber in Europe is fuelling ancient forest destruction, but the EU response so far is based on weak, voluntary measures which will not solve the problem,” said Connor.

Moreover, the TTAP will not do anything to tackle unscrupulous timber traders who have no intention of ‘going legal’ and will continue to distort the market by trafficking cheaper illegal products. It will only apply to timber products from five timber producer countries [3]. Furthermore, the TTAP fails to consider sustainable forest management.

Meanwhile today, 30 Greenpeace activists boarded a ship carrying rainforest timber at the Italian port of Livorno. Eight activists, dressed as gorillas, climbed two of the ship’s cranes to prevent its cargo from being unloaded. The timber is from the Congo Basin, where widespread illegal logging is destroying the forest and driving gorillas and chimpanzees towards extinction. The rainforest is also home to millions of indigenous people who depend on it for their survival.

“If the timber traders are serious, the wood products they sell should be from well managed forests, such as those certified according to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC),” said Connor.

Meanwhile, illegal and destructive logging is having a devastating impact on endangered species and forest dependent peoples in many timber producing countries. The World Bank estimates that illegal logging costs these countries between US$10-15 billion per year in lost revenue [4], about the same amount that Europe gives in aid each year. Illegal logging is also linked to corruption, organised crime and human rights abuses.