Legality and Sustainability

Central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are now required to procure timber and wood-derived products originating from either:

• legal and sustainable, or;

• FLEGT-licensed or equivalent sources, or; 

• recycled timber

Definition of legal and sustainable

Legal sources 

For UK Government procurement, legal timber and wood-derived products are those which originate from a forest where the following requirements are met:

• The forest owner/manager holds legal use rights to the forest.
• There is compliance by both the forest management organisation and any contractors with local and national legal requirements including those relevant to:
• Forest management;
• Environment;
• Labour and welfare;
• Health and safety;
• Other parties' tenure and use rights
• All relevant royalties and taxes are paid
• There is compliance with the requirements of CITES.

Sustainable sources

For the purpose of the UK Government timber procurement policy, sustainable timber and wood products must come from a forest which is managed in accordance with a definition of sustainable that meets the requirements set out below: 

Content of the definition

• The definition must be consistent with a widely accepted set of international criteria defining sustainable or responsible forest management at the forest management unit level.
• The definition must be performance-based, meaning that measurable outputs must be included.
• Management of the forest must ensure that harm to ecosystems is minimised. 
• Management of the forest must ensure that productivity of the forest is maintained.
• Management of the forest must ensure that forest ecosystem health and vitality is maintained.
• Management of the forest must ensure that biodiversity is maintained.
• The process of defining 'sustainable' must seek to ensure:
• No single interest can dominate the process;
• No decision can be made in the absence of agreement from the majority of an interest category.

From April 2010, application of the timber procurement policy includes certain social criteria. The social criteria must not be included in technical specifications for procurement of timber and wood-derived products, but only in recommended contract conditions. The social criteria that are included in model contract conditions are noted below for information purposes, as contractors may be required by contract conditions to provide evidence of compliance, for example through certification schemes.

Social criteria 

• Management of the forest must have full regard for:
• Identification, documentation and respect of legal, customary and traditional tenure and use rights  related to the forest;
• Mechanisms for resolving grievances and disputes including those relating to tenure and use rights, to  forest management practices and to work conditions; and
• Safeguarding the basic labour rights and health and safety of forest workers.

The details on the legality and sustainability definitions and the requirements which have to be met are provided in the following document:  UK Government Timber Procurement policy: Definition of legality and sustainability . 

If requested, suppliers must be able to provide evidence to the Government that the wood or wood products they supply are from legal and sustainable sources. Note that for a source to be considered sustainable the legality criteria also have to be met.

In order to assist procurement personnel and suppliers, the government has identified two types of evidence that will demonstrate the legality and sustainability of timber and timber products:

• Category A : Certification of materials under one of the approved schemes
• Category B: All other forms of evidence, for example audit statements, government documentation or supplier declarations.