“It’s an exciting time in my working sphere, with many timber and wood products companies wanting to prove that their materials are legally sourced from sustainable forests. Independently checking the supply chain, from the forest to the end under product, and providing a guarantee through Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, is our main task.

“There’s great variety in what I do. I work with companies and communities that grow, manufacture or sell timber in all its forms (paper, floorboards, furniture) and other forest products such as medicinal plants, berries fungi etc. I manage our FSC certification programme for western Europe and the Americas. I carry out supply chain audits, examining companies’ systems and documentation to ensure that they are sourcing materials from well-managed, sustainable forests and deliver training to forest managers and potential auditors.

“The best part of my job is exchanging knowledge with other people as I travel. It’s a privilege to find out about different types of forests and social situations in other countries, and to train their people to undertake auditing, all of which helps us here in the UK to be able to buy sustainable wood products. You find the perspective changes with different countries. In the UK and Europe, the focus is on responsible trading and purchasing. In the Americas, protecting jobs and livelihoods is the reason for many forest producers wanting to obtain sustainability certification.

“My degree courses were in anthropology, development and sustainable natural resource management and I’d recommend this job to anyone with an interest in those areas, or globalisation and ethical trading. The only downside is the weight of administration, so be prepared! The timber industry should make better use of environmental marketing so that everyone knows what a fantastic and environmentally-friendly material sustainable timber can be.”