Killing with kindness?
“British timber is out there growing but it is not getting to market. If these volumes were not coming across from Europe then all our British sawmills would have closed down.”
Environmental concerns mean green certification is now a requirement for most timber suppliers, but Oliver Bullough asks whether good intentions are destroying what is left of our native timber industry
British hardwood forestry is in crisis. Employment is falling, production has collapsed and pessimism is rife. The movement towards sustainably produced furniture and floor boards is touted as the solution. It will, we hear, provide new markets where high-end British products can take on cheap and mass-produced foreign imports.
But, for those in the trade, the truth is very different. Green certification just adds to the bureaucratic weight that is suffocating saw mills, foresters and cabinet makers. It is killing British forestry with kindness and in the long run this could spell the end of Britain’s forest habitat as we know it.
“I used to have 10 buyers in the UK, now I have one buyer full-time. I have to go all over Europe for four days a week, and I buy the volumes that these 10 people bought before,” said Chris Hyde, managing director of Crewe-based saw miller Chantler timber. “If I had not gone into Europe then we would have closed down. British timber is out there growing but it is not getting to market. If these volumes were not coming across from Europe then all our British sawmills would have closed down.”