Supplying Timber Issue 9 0 - Autumn 2025 - Flipbook - Page 67
Responsible
Purchasing Policy
At Timber Development UK,
our importer members are
obliged to complete a thirdparty audited due diligence
scheme – the Responsible
Purchasing Policy (RPP) – over
all of their imports giving a level
of assurance to end users that
the full supply chain of timber
products coming into the UK is
being properly scrutinised.
↗
Top: Abbotsford
Visitor Reception,
Melrose, Scotland: the
external terrace deck
is removable boards
of FSC-certi昀椀ed
tropical hardwood
garapa; © Paul Zanre
Deal Pier Café, by
Niall McLaughlin:
Iroko was chosen as
a reliable, durable
hardwood for the
trussed portal frame;
© Niall McLaughlin
↗
a strict series of Governmentled legal and governance
reforms in-country.
Indonesia was the 昀椀rst
country to be granted a
FLEGT licence for introducing
a transformational forest
monitoring, veri昀椀cation and
certi昀椀cation system – and has
seen a drop in deforestation
rates in the region of 60% since
the system was introduced.
Ghana is next in line to be
awarded FLEGT licence status
for the regulatory framework
introduced there. But there have
been noticeable improvements
in forest processes,
transparency and legal
compliance even in countries
which have not achieved the
licencing status.
The FLEGT framework also
introduced legal obligations
on importers to conduct
strict due diligence of timber
products into the EU and UK.
This has meant that, since 2013,
importers have been gathering
evidence and paperwork to
prove full compliance with the
laws of the origin country and
across the full supply chain.
This is policed by the O昀케ce for
Product Safety and Standards
(OPSS) and punishable by law
for non-compliance.
TIMBER KNOWLEDGE
———— RETHINKING TROPICAL TIMBER ————
EUDR is on the way
Coming at the end of this
year, on a regulatory front,
the incoming European
Deforestation Regulation
(EUDR) is looking to introduce
similar due diligence measures
not just for timber but for a
number of other related forest
risk commodities in
the agriculture sector – soy,
co昀昀ee, palm oil, beef,
leather and cocoa.
SUPPLYING TIMBER
67
AUTUMN 2025
Taken together, this
combination of voluntary
and regulatory measures has
improved the landscape for
tropical timber production and
should be rewarded through
improved trade and end use.
The Broader Market
Recognition Coalition
Trade is vital to encouraging
more reform and improvements
right across the tropical forest
