Author: Hoisington, Caroline
Title: Rough Trade: How Australia's Trade Policies Contribute to Illegal Logging in the Pacific Region
Summary: The Australian Government is not doing enough to ensure that Australian imports of forestry products are consistent with the goals of Australian aid programs and stated commitments to reduce greenhouse gases. Australian aid includes programs and projects to help Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Island nations to better manage their forestry resources for long-term sustainability, maximum socioeconomic benefit for their citizens and to participate in REDD (reduced emissions from deforestation and forest destruction), the innovative program rewarding carbon sequestration. Illegal logging in these countries is more extensive than generally understood and it is a serious impediment to achieving the goals of Australian aid programs. Illegal logging is a major cause of deforestation and environmental destruction; it undermines nations’ efforts to manage forest resources for a sustainable industry, destroys the livelihood of forest-dwellers and costs governments large sums in lost revenue. It fosters corruption and is associated with organised crime and violence. It undercuts the international and Australian domestic markets for wood products from legally managed forestry by being cheaper. Deforestation is responsible for about 20 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, and illegal logging is responsible for a large part of the deforestation. Continued illegal logging demonstrates that governments cannot protect their forest resources and it undermines their credibility for participation in the REDD mechanism. Ultimately, illegal logging is market-driven and a significant part of the demand is international. Australia inadvertently contributes to these problems by importing timber and wood products, including wooden furniture, without adequate controls in place to ensure that the wood is legally sourced. The lack of legal mechanisms available to Customs for the control of illegal wood imports is inconsistent with the goal of Australia’s aid program, environmentally sound management of natural resources among neighbouring countries and at home. It may benefit the importers of certain products by keeping prices low but those artificially low prices undercut Australia’s own forestry and forestry-based industries. Several specific measures are recommended to ensure that timber and wood-product imports are legally sourced.
Details: Bruce, ACT, AUS: The Australia Institute, University of Canberra, 2010. 93p.
Source: Internet Resource: Institute Paper No. 5: Accessed July 27, 2011 at: www.tai.org.au
Year: 2010
Country: Australia
URL:
Shelf Number: 122177
Keywords:
Illegal Logging (Australia)Illegal TradeNatural ResourcesOffenses Against the EnvironmentOrganized Crime |
