Eco plea over barbecue charcoal

People are being asked to think before they light their barbecue

A campaign is being launched to encourage people to use only sustainable charcoal when they barbecue.

The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, south west London believes too many of us do not realise that the charcoal we burn often comes from tropical wood and that vast swathes of forest are destroyed to provide it.

It believes that most of the 40,000 tonnes of barbecued charcoal used every year in the UK comes from unsustainable sources.

As thousands of Britons plan their Sunday barbecues during this heatwave, Wakehurst Place in West Sussex will be the focus of an event to highlight the damage done to tropical rainforests by non-sustainable charcoal.

It will also call for people to be more aware of what they are burning.

Visitors will have a chance to see sustainable charcoal being burnt in kilns from managed woodlands where trees grows back in a few years.

The event has been timed to coincided with the feast of St Alexander on Monday, the patron saint of charcoal burners.