Government takes strong action on illegal timber imports
Peter Garrett,Tony Burke
posted Thursday, 12 August 2010
A re-elected Gillard Labor Government will implement a package of reforms to restrict the sale of illegally logged wood in Australia.
Illegal logging is a global problem that needs to be eliminated as it has significant economic, social and environmental costs. These costs are estimated at around US$60 billion per annum, and affect some of the poorest nations in the world.
A re-elected Gillard Labor Government will introduce tough new legislation making it an offence to import any timber products into Australia that have not been legally harvested.
In addition, a Gillard Labor Government will implement a code of conduct to require suppliers who first place timber into the Australian market to carry out the proper tests to ensure wood coming into the country is legal.
We will also require the use of a trade description and the circumstances under which it can be used, which will give consumers confidence that they are purchasing legally sourced wood.
A Gillard Labor Government will continue to work through our bilateral agreements with Indonesia, China and Papua New Guinea to ensure a consistent global approach to eliminating illegal logging.
Federal Labor’s initiative will complement the work of the United States under the Lacey Act and the European Union by demanding the legal origins of wood are verified.
These measures will put an end to unfair competition on the Australian forestry and timber products sectors by restricting the import of illegal timber products, including sawn timber, wood panels, composite products, wooden furniture, and pulp and paper products.
Our combination of initiatives and those of the EU and the US on illegal logging will raise the bar for forestry practices in a number of countries internationally so that in the future they will have the same high standards of sustainable forest management which are demonstrated in Australia.
This decision to legislate to stop trade in illegally logged timber in Australia is one of a series of new environmental actions that I will be announcing this week along with my colleague Peter Garrett, the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts.
This initiative is another example of the Gillard Labor Governments strong commitment to protection of our environment for our future generations.
There will be no impact on the budget from this important initiative.
Tags: imports, timber