In December, the Timber Trade Federation published a report detailing the development of timber certification in the UK over past four years.
 

The objectives of this DFID-funded certification study, conducted in 2009, were to:
 

• quantify certified softwood round-wood, sawn timber and panel products available from recognised schemes within the major sectors of the timber industry in the UK for 2008, and compare these with the results from the previous study in 2005, and to indicate how certification might develop into 2009.
• estimate the quantity of certified timber available from recognised certification schemes and provide a comparison of how the leading certification schemes have developed between 2005 and 2008.

The Report found that the level of certification in the UK timber industry has increased significantly between 2005 and 2008. The certified proportion of the 8.18m tonnes of softwood roundwood harvested in the UK in 2008 increased to 83.9% from a level of 80.5% in 2005. The Report also found that the certified proportion in the UK of the 14.40m m3 of timber and panel products produced and imported in 2008 grew to 83.6%, from a level of 66.7% in 2005.

Other key findings of the Report were:
 

• Imported softwood lumber certification has been the area which has seen the most significant growth, from 58% of imports in 2005 to over 90% in 2008
• The level of certified timber and panel products imports to the UK has risen from 55.8% in 2005 to 81.4% in 2008
• The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) dominate certification in the UK, with each building upon their strengths in their specialist areas. The PEFC schemes share of UK imports was around 50%, with FSC having a 30% share
• The PEFC share of timber and panel products produced in the UK and imported rose to 32% in 2008, from a level of 18% in 2005. The share of FSC products increased from 48% in 2005 to 52%
• Around 1 in 3 customers now specifically request certified products; an increase from around 10% of sales in 2005 to over 30% in 2008