Revealed: Sale of garden furniture in Britain is propping up a brutal regime

One of Britain's biggest garden centre companies is selling furniture made from teak sold by the oppressive Burmese military regime. Tables, chairs and other goods made from the wood are on sale at dozens of branches of Wyevale Garden Centres around the country.

One of Britain's biggest garden centre companies is selling furniture made from teak sold by the oppressive Burmese military regime. Tables, chairs and other goods made from the wood are on sale at dozens of branches of Wyevale Garden Centres around the country.

The company and its supplier, a British company called Neptune, claim to sell furniture only from ethical sources, and do not mention in publicity that their products have come from Burma. But campaigners say that profits from the garden furniture sets are propping up the south-east Asian country's brutal dictatorship.

The revelations come ahead of the biggest weekend for garden centres, with millions of pounds expected to be spent over the Easter holiday. Many of Wyevale's 114 stores sell furniture sets made by Neptune.

Some of the teak used in Neptune's garden furniture is bought directly from the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which rules Burma.

Nathan Argent, forests campaigner for Greenpeace, which carried out the investigation, said: "Wyevale have acted disgracefully by buying timber from Burma. There is absolutely no excuse for this abhorrent behaviour.

"Wyevale are failing their customers by selling timber that is directly linked to environmental destruction and human rights abuses."

Burma is the world's largest exporter of teak and the vast majority of exports are directly controlled by the SPDC. Forestry is supposed to be controlled in an attempt to prevent environmental damage and there are legal quotas on the amount of timber exported.

But illegal logging and the over-forestation of supposedly sustainable forests are destroying huge swaths of Burma's timber supplies.

The secrecy of the Burmese regime makes it impossible to know whether timber from the country is legal or illegal, campaigners say.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the international body that certifies forests as sustainable for buyers and customers, is so concerned about logging in Burma that it has refused to give any timber from the country its backing.

Giles Redman, the managing director of Swindon-based Neptune, defended his company's business in Burma yesterday, and claimed that the SPDC was supported by the country's people. He said: "There are two ways of the dealing with the solution; one, you apply sanctions. The alternative is to do business with them and the country gets interested in the idea that they are generating dollars and they have to take more responsibility."

Wyevale made more than £15m in pre-tax profit last year. It claims to only use ethical suppliers, and says that it "fully supports" the FSC guidelines. But it does not tell customers that some of the products in the Neptune range are made of timber from Burma.

In a league table of ethical garden furniture suppliers compiled by Greenpeace, Wyevale was given an "E" grade for selling goods linked to Burma. The company also scores badly for failing to provide sufficient evidence that timber which is sourced from Indonesia, where corruption and illegal logging is rife, has come from sustainable supplies.

A spokeswoman for Wyevale said: "Wyevale cannot provide a full statement until it has investigated the matter fully. However, it would like to reiterate its policy, which is to ensure that all our wooden furniture is manufactured from timber which is certificated to have been sourced from managed forests."

But she could not confirm that all of its products were FSC certified, and did not deny that Neptune products were sold in stores.

Only House of Fraser and Harrods were given the worse score of "F", for failing to respond to Greenpeace's requests for information about the sources of their furniture.

Asda, Woolworth's, Tesco and B&Q all scored a top A grade from only using products with an FSC certificate.

Greenpeace, along with other lobby groups, is calling on consumers to boycott all products from Burma.