INDONESIAN RAINFOREST PLYWOOD

Early day motion 1396, tabled 11 June 2003 by Sue Doughty (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 52 members.

That this House notes that the United Kingdom imported 237,000 cubic metres of Indonesian rainforest plywood in 2002, that the United Kingdom is the largest importer of Indonesian rainforest timber in Europe and that it is estimated that 88 per cent. of logging in Indonesia will be illegal this year; expresses grave concern that illegal logging is threatening with extinction thousands of species, including the orang-utan, in one of the world's most biologically-diverse regions; further notes that there is no existing legislation to stop the import of illegally-acquired timber into the United Kingdom and that the EU Commission's action plan to tackle illegal logging fails to include new legislative measures to stop the import of illegal timber into EU countries; and calls on the Government urgently to pursue a leading role in the EU to end the import of all illegal timber and to demand that the EU action plan is amended to include new legislation to ban the import of illegal timber into the EU.

Signatures by party: Labour 24, Liberal Democrat 17, Conservative 5, Labour/Co-operative 2, Plaid Cymru 2, UUP 2.