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Proposed laws to stop illegal logging imports too weak to work : Comments
By Reece Turner, published 2/5/2011If you own timber furniture there is a pretty good chance that some of it was made from illegally logged timber.
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It is largely because Australian native hardwood, particularly the more durable and attractive species such as Jarrah, are now so difficult to acquire because of politically-expedient industry closures to appease 'green' ENGOs, that we import so much rainforest hardwood from developing countries.
The Howard Government realised this, but this has had no bearing on State Labor Govts which, since 2001, have embarked on a completely unwarranted purging of Australia's domestic NF timber industries for political gain, but with very little conservation benefit considering the negative impact it has had on the capability to manage forest fire, through the chronic under-resourcing of new parks and reserves which now produce nothing.
Tasmania is the current example - with just 26% of its public forest estate in wood production zones (and 74% reserved), the public have been assailed for years with ENGO campaigns proclaiming the need to 'save' forests before the last trees are logged! If these campaigns ultimately succeed in substantially (or fully) throttling the Tas native hardwood industry, we can expect even more illegal timber imports, but strangely this doesn't seen the register amongst our blinkered ENGOs.