The Australian Government will be holding public information sessions around the country to inform industry and other interested parties on the Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011 that was introduced into Parliament on 23 November 2011.
Information sessions will be held in:
• Adelaide – 23 February 9:45am–11:15am 25 Grenfell Street, Adelaide
• Perth – 24 February 9:00am-10:30am Balmoral Hotel, 901 Albany Hwy East Victoria Park
• Melbourne – 5 March 9:00am-10:30am Best Western Airport hotel & Convention Centre, 33 Ardlie Street, Attwood
• Sydney – 5 March 2:30pm-4:00pm Stamford Plaza Sydney Airport, Cnr Robey and O’Riordan Street Mascot
• Brisbane – 6 March 9:00am-10:30am Comfort Inn Suites Brisbane, 186 Toombul Road Northgate, Brisbane
To register your attendance please send your name, contact details and city of attendance (if you haven’t done so already) to [email protected].
The government will continue to consult with industry and other interested stakeholders as key aspects of the policy are developed. For more information relating to the illegal logging policy and its implementation please visit www.daff.gov.au/illegallogging.
And while Australia acts on illegal logging, in Indonesia efforts to stem illegal logging by requiring Indonesian timber exports to be certified will prove futile if cheaper, uncertified wood continues to be available on the market, according to some officials.
Diah Raharjo, director of the Multistakeholder Forestry Program, a collaboration between the Indonesian and British governments, said progress was being made in getting logging firms to comply but there was still much work to do.
“We’ve been pushing for the 27 countries in the European Union to close down the illegal market for timber products because it would be useless if we have these products certified but they still keep on buying cheap [uncertified] wood and timber products,” she said.
Listya Kusuma Wardhani, the Forestry Ministry’s director of forestry products and fees development, said it was important that consumers realized why they should pay more for certified timber than for illegally logged wood.
“It all goes back to the buyers. They need to be concerned about the issue of certified legal products,” she said. “The concept of buying certified legal products is still not globally understood.
“That’s why these products still have difficulty competing in the market. If the consumers know that these products are produced in sustainable ways, then they would understand that they need to pay a much more for them.”
