Whatever you may think of his political credentials, as Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has been pushing to make the metropolis a greener city. His plans for a low-energy London have shown just how far behind central government are in terms of planning for a sustainable future, and the Greater London Authority (GLA) ensures that all timber used in their building projects is from sources approved by the Forest Stewardship Council.
All good stuff, until we took a closer look at the building work going on in Trafalgar Square. Nelson's Column is currently undergoing restoration and is sheathed in scaffolding while the Vice-Admiral gets a fresh coat of paint. Also being used on the site are planks of plywood that our investigations revealed is not FSC-certified. Far from it.
In fact, the plywood is made from a tropical hardwood called bintangor that was once growing happily in the forests of Papua New Guinea (PNG). These forests, which house an incredibly diverse range of plant and animal life with new species still being discovered, are under threat from land-grabbing and illegal logging and are disappearing faster than any other rainforest on the planet.
As a recent report by the World Bank and the PNG government states, "the majority of forestry operations cannot credibly be characterised as complying with national laws... and are therefore 'unlawful'". Ironic then that the scaffolding around Nelson's Column us currently shrouding in artwork depicting what might happen to London as a result of global warming - rainforests help regulate the climate and tearing them down will only exacerbate the problem.
We went to the GLA and told them about the lapse in their policies but, rather than follow the standard practice of shifting blame elsewhere, the Mayor used his weekly press conference yesterday as an opportunity to acknowledge the problem and promised to tighten up their policies for sustainable timber. "My vision is for London to be a sustainable world city," he said, "which is why I have taken action to raise standards."
But while procurement policies like those implemented by the GLA can form part of the solution they aren't enough - it can only be with legislation from central government that illegally and unsustainably sourced timber will not be used anywhere in the UK.
