by Catherine Delahunty
Cabinet decisions addressing illegal and unsustainable logging imports released last week claim to be a package of actions. In fact they are a long list of inactions.
The National Government has backed away from the previous Government’s 2008 requirement to label the tropical timber used in outdoor furniture – kwila – which is being illegally logged, particularly across West Papua.
Labour’s mandatory labelling requirement hadn’t yet been fully implemented, but it was a good start. Now National have ignored calls from the New Zealand forestry industry and environmental networks for regulation to stop the import of wood products from rainforests.
I am personally extremely disappointed because when my Customs and Excise (Sustainable Forestry) Bill to ban illegal and unsustainable timber imports was voted down, the Minister of Forestry, David Carter, told me that while he hadn’t supported the Bill, he would take action. He said he was aware that voluntary regimes to stop this trade were not working.
Yet Cabinet has decided that we should follow the Australian Government who have also just reneged on an election promise to act on the issue and decided that encouraging voluntary labelling is sufficient action.
One of the most offensive aspects of Cabinet’s decision is that in his paper to Cabinet – which I have read – the Minister states that no human rights are affected by this policy position. The human rights of the 60 million indigenous people worldwide who are affected by illegal logging clearly don’t matter to this Government.
The illegal timber trade is a bloody business costing human life, endangered species, and the environment.
Worse still, after the rainforests have been cleared, palm oil plantations move in. Our Government has just turned a blind eye.
Cabinet has not allocated any money for educating the public about making sustainable timber choices, or to help identify the bottom feeders who continue to import and sell these products. At the very least, MAF should be required to publicise a list of retailers who have made the bold decision to only sell legal and sustainable products.
The Government’s rationale seems to be that we need to stay friends with China, Indonesia, and other countries with weak environmental protection and human rights laws.
The European Union and United States have been much braver and are committing to regulation. In the USA you can now be prosecuted for trading illegal timber products.
I am investigating the prospect of a new Members’ Bill which would address the mandatory labelling issue and the internal trading issue. Be it at our borders or within our borders this trade must be stopped.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Catherine Delahunty on Thu, January 28th, 2010
More posts by Catherine Delahunty | more about Catherine Delahunty
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Go for it!
Trevor.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0 (+2)
LOGGERS, THUGS AND GANGSTERS
A very good post a lot of these loggers are nothing more than a bunch of thugs and gangsters Glen Barry (Ecoligical internet) hes revealed some appalling atrocities around the world.
Take a visit to his site and see what is going on in Madagasca and how the people have been totally sold out by their government.
It is absolutely corrupt!!!
This government is just as culpable by it’s apathetic approach with regards to the indiginous people of Papua and the Islands,who are being sold down the drain.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0 (+2)
Deforestation and illegal movement of timber from one country to another will probably turn out to be the ’20-20 hindsight view’ issue that the world comes to regret the most, in the coming years.
Any legislation that can slow down this trade must inevitably be a good thing.
Forest reserves, be they rainforest, or our own native forests, are one of the recommendations to remediate climate change – they are truly the lungs of the Earth – and our agricultural history of clearing ‘unproductive’ land to make way for pastures or cropping land is a shame we should be acknowledging, particularly in area where this procedure has resulted in played-out land, marginal for any farming purpose, such as much of our high country leasehold sheep-stations.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0 (0)