Troubled timber firm points finger at others

A timber importer expelled from the Timber Importers Association says it has been sacrificed to take the heat off others suspected of involvement in importing illegal timber.

"We have effectively been made a sacrificial lamb," said Buster Wyllie, general manager of The LumberBank New Zealand.

In December, the High Court ruled in favour of the expulsion of the company for importing illegally logged wood from Papua New Guinea, contravening the association's rainforest policy.

This week, the company withdrew its High Court appeal against the expulsion, saying it no longer saw any benefit in membership.

Association president Chris Wiffen said The LumberBank had breached its rainforest policy, which advocates sustainable management, and had failed to answer claims by environmental lobby group Greenpeace.

The company's apparent non-compliance stemmed from trading with parent company Rimbunan Hijau from Papua New Guinea, Wyllie said.

Rimbunan Hijau is a timber and forestry company identified by Greenpeace as allegedly involved in illegal logging of hardwoods.

Even though the company had done its best to assure the association it was not importing illegal timber, it had wanted independent, third-party proof, Wyllie said.

"It would appear that Greenpeace breathing down the necks of the [association] over alleged forestry methods elsewhere has pushed them to expel us in order to avoid further scrutiny on any other members of the group."

New Zealand companies were also involved in the export of timbers from Indonesia, Myanmar and China, "wherever there is slave labour and all those things us Westerners don't like", he said.

Under the "harsh" conditions he had been found guilty, but other local importers were doing the same thing.

"The wood that's coming out of South America - we can all get certificates to show its sustainable yield, when in fact it may not be. It's very difficult to prove."

- NZPA