Mr Malcolm Turnbull
Mr Turnbull announced that Australia would participate in a system of satellite tracking stations to help monitor forest cover in the Asia-Pacific region. Sources: AAP, SBS News
Environment Minister Turnbull has said that technology will help Australia targeting illegal logging in the Asia-Pacific region.
The surveillance is aimed at helping countries track illegal logging.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Mr Turnbull announced that Australia would give $10 million to Indonesia and contribute almost $12 million to a World Bank program as part of the federal government’s $200 million global climate initiative.
They said $10 million would go to Indonesia and $11.7 million to the World Bank’s new global Forest Alliance to help fund sustainable forest management and international efforts to reduce global deforestation.
The funding is being provided from the federal government’s $200 million Global Initiative on Forests and Climate Change.
Mr Turnbull said the use of technology in the fight against deforestation would be on the agenda at a meeting of about 70 countries in Sydney this week.
“We’re going to need technology, we’re going to need money, we’re going to need goodwill and a lot of cooperation,” Mr Turnbull told ABC Radio.
“Some of the largest deforesters will be there in the sense that countries like Indonesia and Brazil, the countries of big tropical forests where most of the deforestation is occurring, are going to be present.
“There’s no point funding the protection of a forest in one valley if the forest in the adjoining valley is all clearfelled.”
The report said countries would be asked to join the scheme so the results could be fed into an international database.
Greenpeace spokesman Steven Campbell said a similar program was already up and running and funds should be directed elsewhere.
“One of the biggest problems with deforestation in our region in places such as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, is the level of corruption and poor governance in the forest,” he said.
“The best thing that the government can do is to stop the importation of illegal timber in Australia, because we import about $400 million worth of illegal timber every year.”
