Green groups in Australia have reacted angrily to forestry minister Tony Burke’s signing off of changes seen to be a watering down of an election promise to ban imports of timber illegally logged overseas. Instead the changes call for the trade in legal timber to be promoted.
Mr Burke has responded by saying it was impossible for the authorities to tell if imported timber was legal or illegally felled: “Illegally-logged timber doesn’t come with an identification sticker,” he said.
“Without that knowledge, the only option would be a blanket ban on all imports, including the 91% of timber imports believed to be logged legally. Clearly this is not an option.”
He added that Australia has negotiated agreements with Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to help authorities identify legally-logged timber and that discussions were being held with Malaysia and China.
