Blog: Forests

If you were caught selling pirate DVDs, it would be no surprise if you were fined or even sent to jail. After all, you would be breaking the law.

But when companies in Europe buy or sell illegal timber from the last of the world's ancient forests, nothing happens. They won't even have the timber confiscated. Astounding, there are no laws to stop illegal timber or timber products from ending up in your local shops or even in your home.

We haven't made a lot of fuss about the Book Campaign for a while, but it's been slowly simmering in the background and the results have been pretty impressive. Publishers have been keen to adopt forest friendly policies so they use more recycled paper and paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and to date over 40 per cent of UK publishers are on the road to going green.

We haven't made a lot of fuss about the Book Campaign for a while, but it's been slowly simmering in the background and the results have been pretty impressive. Publishers have been keen to adopt forest friendly policies so they use more recycled paper and paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and to date over 40 per cent of UK publishers are on the road to going green.

It's official. The European Union Commission has admitted that we were right about illegal timber in the commission's own headquarters.