In its report “Pandering to the loggers”, published 25 July 2011, Global Witness claims that the WWF scheme is fundamentally flawed; allowing organisations to benefit from being associated with the charity while still clearing protected forests and trading in illegally-sourced timber. Global Forest and Trade Network scheme, which forestry companies, manufacturers and retailers pay to join, requires forestry firms to commit to achieving a “credible” voluntary forestry certification and for trade partners to cease sourcing illegally-harvested wood within five years in a bid to encourage more sustainable practices across the market. However, Global Witness argues that a lack of minimum standards for participating companies combined with very little publically available information on the scheme’s participants bring into doubt the validity of the scheme… The group calls for a comprehensive independent audit of the scheme, how it is managed and what it has achieved in terms of real-world benefit for forests.