Conversations about Climate Change Grappling with something as big as our relationship to the climate crisis can often seem a bit overwhelming. As designers, architects, makers, and consumers we have a positive part to play. It can start with something as simple as choosing the right materials from the right places. How much have you thought about where you can source one of the humblest, but perhaps the most heroic material of all – wood? Trees are unique in their ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere – storing it in their wood as they grow. They release oxygen, as the lungs of the earth, and provide precious natural habitats. Maintaining forests is essential to reducing emissions and mitigating the worst impacts of climate change. Conversations About Climate Change presents six installations, all made from tropical hardwoods from countries embarking upon FLEGT-licensing, acting as ‘conversation pieces’ that reflect on our relationship to our natural world. Why tropical hardwoods? Tropical forests have long been undervalued and exploited, with designers tending to avoid tropical timbers because of their association with negative logging practices and deforestation. After all, wouldn’t it be best to leave the forests standing? Unfortunately, there are huge pressures on land use around the world, and if forests aren’t utilised for their timber then they will almost certainly be cleared for the land that they stand on in order to grow something else that can be sold. Around the world today, agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation and illegal logging. 2019 alone saw 30 football 1 fields worth of tropical trees lost every minute. What is FLEGT? Initiatives like the EU’s FLEGT Action Plan (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) hope to change that. This legal framework for sustainable timber production aims to reduce illegal logging and keep forests standing by creating sustainable incomes and livelihoods for local communities, thus reducing emissions and protecting biodiverse habitats.
How will it work? Tropical countries aspiring towards FLEGTlicensing develop country specific laws, regulations and standards to enforce through the creation of a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the EU/UK. It requires them to implement legal and governance reforms over forest management by engaging business, civil society and local communities’ participation. Only when these reforms are completed will their timber be able to carry a FLEGT-license – giving market access to the EU/UK, and superior trading conditions across the globe. As of 2021, there are 15 countries undergoing progress towards the EU’s FLEGT Action Plan. Together, these tropical nations account 2 for 80% of the global tropical timber trade. Indonesia is the first country to issue FLEGT-licensed timber to the EU/UK, and others including Ghana are working to follow. Forests are about people as much as they are about trees, and we hope you come away empowered by the role that you can play in building a better world. With thanks to our competition judges; Julia Barfield, Adam Brinkworth, Yinka Ilori, Leah Riley Brown and Andrew Waugh.
1 World Wide Fund for Nature 2 ITTO / FLEGT IMM
Conversations about Climate Change is a partnership between the Building Centre and the Timber Trade Federation.
www.buildingcentre.co.uk/conversations #ClimateConversations
Sponsored by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and The Built Environment Trust.
Timber for this project has been sourced through Timber Trade Federation members, in line with the TTF’s Responsible Purchasing Policy – a risk management framework for the continuous improvement of TTF Members’ awareness of obligations under the EU Timber Regulation / UK Timber Regulation (EUTR/ UKTR, the Constructions Product Regulation (CPR) and TTF Code of Conducts.
Supported by James Latham, Mere Plantations, Arnold Laver, Interholco, Brooks Bros, Morgan Timber, & the Malaysian Timber Council.
Exhibition design: Install Archive Graphic design: Daly & Lyon