Australia’s forestry minister Tony Burke has signed off changes watering down an election promise to ”ban” imports of timber illegally logged overseas to instead ”promote the trade” of legal timber, The Age newspaper reports.
The newspaper says Mr Burke has signed a document that recommends the new policy direction be adopted as it ”leaves open the option to consider a broad range of policy options for combating illegal logging”.
The document also says the domestic industry has concerns that ”any action” to block timber from illegal logging overseas may hurt its bottom line.
The federal government believes that of all timber imported into Australia, 9% – worth A$400m annually – is logged illegally, mainly in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
During the 2007 election the Labour Party promised it would ”encourage sourcing of forest products from sustainable forest practices and seek to ban the sale of illegally logged timber imports”.
But under the changes approved by Mr Burke, the policy now states ”the Australian government will combat illegal logging and its associated trade by establishing systems that will promote trade in legally logged timber and wood products and, in the long term, trade timber and wood products from sustainably managed forests”.
Greenpeace and some timber companies are expected to call for the original policy to be implemented.
