A number of environmental organisations are angry that the government is to buy wood from Malaysia.

The World Wide Fund for Nature, Greenpeace, the Netherlands Centre for Indigenous People and Milieudefensie say Malaysian wood is harvested in an irresponsible way, the Telegraaf reports.

From Monday, junior environment minister Wilma Mansveld is allowing the wood to be imported for use by councils and provinces as long as it carries the Malaysian quality mark MTCS.

Misleading

The organisations say the quality mark is misleading and that the wood comes from forests where the indigenous people are not respected and trees are hacked down to make way for palm oil plantages.

The Netherlands stands for sustainable wood imports but between 2002 and 2012 Malaya had the greatest deforestation of any country, the organisations say.

It will take two years to see if the MTCS mark meets Dutch criteria for sustainable wood, but Mansveld says Malaya is an example to other forest managers, the Telegraaf says.