BRITAIN is failing to show leadership to tackle deforestation and needs to be held accountable for its part in the global trade, an environmental charity has said.

It should take responsibility for the harm caused through its supply chains, a paper by the WWF UK said.

WWF UK executive director for science and conservation Mike Barrett said: “What we fundamentally need is a redistribution of accountability so that importing countries like Britain are held more responsible for the harm that we cause to forests through the supply chains of goods that we import.

“Deforestation has remained a profitable business and it’s time to call for a halt to that when we have only seven years left to meet those 2030 targets.”

Mr Barrett said Britain’s investment of £3 billion from the International Climate Fund for protecting nature is “rendered entirely pointless” as the economy drives deforestation abroad through investment and trade.

“Since the Environment Act passed through Parliament, Britain has failed to show leadership,” he said.

“It has not excluded deforestation commodities from our supply chains and investments.

“And in the meantime, as these reports show, millions of hectares more forests are being lost.

“This is not a crisis that we can afford to fix in the future. It’s a crisis now — it needs fixing now.”

The WWF’s Forest Pathways Report, published today, calls on the government to expand the due diligence system to include legal as well as illegal deforestation.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Our Environment Act includes world-leading due diligence legislation to help tackle illegal deforestation in British supply chains.

“Our approach will reinforce the efforts of governments in producer countries to ensure sustainable forest and land use, while we will continue to work closely with local governments and businesses to promote legal agriculture.”