West Africa Trip

05 Dec 2018

James Hopper and Peter Clayton had a very successful visit to the Cameroon last week. The aim being three fold – to build on existing relationships, to find new suppliers and to ensure we are satisfied with on-going environmental and sustainability procedures to support our EUTR due diligence requirements. The gruelling schedule saw them travel to seven suppliers in as many days visiting sawmills and concessions where they were able to see how considered the selection and extraction of logs truly is with every one they visited. They were pleased to see how natural re-growth soon refills the canopy where selected commercial trees have been individually removed, supported in many cases with suppliers replanting their own seedlings from protected species. Peter said ‘The effort that goes into the whole process from felling and extraction through to milling, kilning, packaging and shipping can only really be appreciated by visiting these places and seeing first-hand how hard these people work and how much they care’. During their visit James and Peter were also able to take some time out of their busy schedule to stop and talk to some of the natives in the region to see how they live their lives so happily in what seem like such harsh conditions to us, which as James said was ‘a truly humbling experience and one I’ll never forget’.