The last remaining rainforests in Australia’s neighbouring countries will benefit from Labor’s promise to crack down on illegal timber imports, Greenpeace says.
This week Labor announced that, if re-elected on August 21, it would introduce legislation making it an offence to import illegally harvested wood or wood products.
Greenpeace, which has lobbied for the laws for about a decade, was first to welcome the move. According to the group, each year Australia imports A$840m of illegal timber and timber products from the last remaining rainforests of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific chief executive Linda Selvey told Australian Associated Press that the legislation would help assure Australians they were buying products from legal sources. It would also help drive changes in the forestry industry, particularly in Indonesia, China, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.
“People don’t want to be purchasing stolen timber, and this sends a very strong message to the companies who are illegally logging that it’s not going to be worthwhile,” she said.
Greenpeace also welcomed Labor’s promise to review the laws after five years. It wants the government at that time to go further, and only allow timber grown sustainably to be imported.
