Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) met with officers of the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) last week to discuss latest developments regarding the Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011.
The main issues discussed were the process for stakeholder engagement following the release of the Senate Rural Affairs and Transport Committee Legislation Report on the Draft Bill and whatever feedback the Department could give on the report’s recommendations.
Initial feedback is that the Government is responsive to industry concerns regarding the need to avoid an overly bureaucratic and inflexible means of responding to the problem, that also threatens to burden industry with a high cost of compliance regime. The aim is for a more flexible, risk management based approach able to be tailored to the varying needs of industry. Support was expressed for the requirement of a mandatory declaration of legality, possibly as part of the current Customs declaration, at the point of import. Domestic processors already compliant with stringent Commonwealth and State legal regimes should be able to prove compliance via low cost and flexible due diligence processes.
DAFF will hold the Second Illegal Logging Stakeholder Working Group meeting in Sydney, at the Stamford Plaza Hotel (Sydney Airport), on Thursday 4 August from 10.00am to 12.00pm. The discussion will focus on the recommendations from the Senate Committee report and the way forward.
