Greenpeace today welcomes the findings of the Cabinet Office investigation into the timber procurement for 22 Whitehall and welcomes the Cabinet Office commitment to fall in line with Government timber procurement policy to use only legal and sustainable timber products.
The Government report follows the recent Greenpeace investigation in April, which exposed the use of hundreds of thousands of pounds of sapele timber from Africa's threatened Forest of the Great Apes to refurbish the Cabinet Office in Whitehall.
The report concedes that in response to three Parliamentary Questions on the subject of the timber used in this project, the Government erroneously said that the timber was required under the contract to be from 'certifiable sustainably managed sources on which certificates are to be made available', and the Government erroneously said that 'evidence provided by the main contractor indicates that all the timber supplied so far has been derived from sustainable and legal sources, i.e. the timber has been purchased under certified logging schemes'.
In fact, the findings of the Cabinet Office investigation confirm that Greenpeace was right in its claims: the Cabinet Office had failed to adhere to Government timber procurement policy. Also, the main contractor, Balfour Beatty could provide no evidence that the wood was from legal and sustainable sources as the Cabinet Office contract did stipulate.
As the Cabinet Office report states: 'What is clear is that the contract for 22 Whitehall did not follow Government policy.' Further, when the Cabinet Office requested documentation from Balfour Beatty in line with its (inadequate) contract, 'The documentation provided by Balfour Beatty did not include any certification that the forests or plantations from which the timber was or may have been sourced were in fact (sustainably managed).'
As a result of today's announcement by the Cabinet Office, Greenpeace calls on Prime Minister, Tony Blair to set the House of Commons records straight. Contrary to his statement to the House on 10 April that Greenpeace was 'misconceived', today's report shows that Greenpeace was correct in its information.
John Sauven, Greenpeace Forest Campaign Director, said 'The investigation into the Cabinet Office is a big wake-up call to both Government and the construction industry to take seriously the buying of timber from legal and sustainable sources and to stop the destruction of ancient forests, home to most of the world's biodiversity.'
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Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255
