It's back - the guide that shows which retailers are stocking forest-friendly garden furniture and how they rate against each other in our annual league table.
A British summer beckons and thoughts turn to lazy days in the garden, sheltering from the rain under a parasol on elegant sun loungers whilst watching the barbeque splutter its dying embers over half-thawed sausages.
But wait! What if that parasol and sun lounger, so seductively cheap on the shelf, turned out to have been bought at the expense of threatened forests, endangered species and displaced people? It would kind of put a dampener on an already damp situation.
Fear not, for help is at hand. Returning for the third year running, the 2006 Garden Furniture Guide covers all the major UK retailers of outdoor furniture and details where the source of the timber used in each product. Anything with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) tick tree logo gets the green light while wood from dubious or destructive sources gets a red stamp.
Actually, when we say 'all major UK retailers', that's not quite true. Some big names (Harrods and Notcutts) responded either completely inadequately or not at all. They did the same thing last year. Whilst they may be sourcing some FSC certified product lines, you can draw your own conclusions on the origin of the rest of the timber products they sell and also their attitude to their customers who want to know where their three-piece garden suite comes from.
That aside, there's a lot to celebrate this year as the league table shows. On the whole, there has been real progress made by the UK industry towards FSC certified garden furniture. This includes Wyevale who have made a significant turnaround after last year languishing near the bottom of the table.
Since they were the target of our activists' attentions, they have committed to stocking garden furniture that is 100 per cent FSC certified or is sourced from forests working toward FSC certification through third parties such as the Tropical Forest Trust (TFT).
Their rapid response to last year's league table shows that the industry can quickly move away from using timber torn from ancient forests with no regard for the environment or the people who live there. Yet some retailers have still got some dodgy product lines including Morrisons, the Co-op and the regional garden centre chain Dobbies.
Another development in this year's work is that there has also been a significant move away from the use of timber sourced from rainforest destruction towards wood from plantations. Sounds like a good thing, right?
In some cases it is, but it is worth remembering that plantations can also be intensively managed, leading to environmental degradation. They could even have been founded on illegally-cleared rainforest or stolen land in the first place. So unless retailers could conclusively prove that the plantations they are using are FSC-certified or working towards it, the products in question received a red listing.
