Wyevale, the UK's largest garden centre chain, has announced that they will stop sourcing timber from trashed rainforests and won't sell garden furniture that is helping to finance the brutal military dictatorship in Burma.
Wyevale's press statement says they will stop buying garden furniture from 'all sources that are illegal or controversial, with a view to totally excluding all such timber' and 'ensuring that by 2008 all timber products are sourced from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests or progressing towards being FSC certified by the Tropical Forest Trust.' FSC certified timber products are the only way you can ensure that your garden furniture has come from environmentally and socially responsible sources.
This is a great success and follows our expose of Wyevale in 'The Independent' four weeks ago, where the company was listed bottom of our league table of garden furniture retailers for selling timber from ancient forest destruction, as well as financing the brutal military dictatorship in Burma. Other UK retailers, including Argos, also did badly because they continue to sell timber from the destruction of the world's last rainforests.
Following the launch of the campaign we received a fax from Wyevale, claiming that they had decided to withdraw all garden furniture made from Burmese timber. However, the garden centre chain continued to sell garden furniture made from the last fragments of south-east Asian rainforests.
Consequently, over the Easter Bank Holiday (and subsequent) weekends, 60 groups of Greenpeace activists visited Wyevale stores up and down the country to tell customers of Wyevale purchasing practices.
Thanks to all those who took part in the activities and helped push Wyevales into adopting and FSC only policy.
If you want to ensure that your garden furniture comes does not come from ancient forest destruction, check out our online consumer guide. You can search for your local store to see where their garden furniture is coming from and whether the gazebos or recliners on sale are certified to the standards of the FSC, which ensures timber products are from legal and well managed sources.
You can also check out our league table of garden furniture retailers, in which we rate the progress of different UK retailers on this issue. Whilst some, like B&Q and Tesco are selling a lot of FSC certified garden furniture, other outlets like Argos are continuing to contribute to the destruction of the world's last rainforests.
