Sustainable forest certs now essential

TIMBER buyers are closing the door on forest owners who don't have Sustainable Forest Management certification (SFM), warns Pat Carroll of the SWS Forestry Services company.

"In time, each timber product will be traceable back to the forest in which it was grown, a concept now familiar in beef production," he says.

'The timber market in the UK, our biggest market, now demands SFM certification. Without it, this market is firmly closed."