Australia's parliament on Monday passed laws to ban the import and trade of illegally logged timber, joining the United States and European Union in clamping down on a global trade in stolen timber that Interpol says is worth about $30 billion a year.
The laws, five years in the making, impose fines, jail and forfeiture of goods and oblige importers to carry out mandatory due diligence on timber and timber products sourced from overseas.
"The illegal timber trade is a trade that benefits no one. It risks jobs, it risks the timber industry and it risks the environment," Forestry Minister Joe Ludwig said.
Every year, an area the size of Ireland is illegally cleared in an industry that fuels crime and conflict, destroys livelihoods of forest communities, triggers landslides, pollutes rivers and releases large amounts of carbon emissions.
"The Australian government can raise its head high for following the United States in progressive legislation aimed to stop the ongoing trade in illegal timber products," said Reece Turner, forests campaigner for Greenpeace Australia-Pacific.
The government says about 10 per cent of the more than $4.12 billion US of timber imported annually is illegal and that illegal logging globally causes environmental and social damage estimated at $60 billion a year.
Greenpeace says high-risk products include outdoor furniture, decking and plywood made from tropical hardwood species.
Green groups, governments and some in the timber industry have been pushing for laws to tackle the trade in stolen wood as the world's tropical forests shrink.
Illegal timber depresses prices, slashes margins and can deter firms from investing in better due diligence.
There were sound commercial and environmental reasons to support the laws, said Ross Hearne, general manager of corporate services for Kimberly-Clark Australia and New Zealand, which makes various products from paper.
"We face cheap paper imports in Australia and one of the factors in cheap imports is illegally harvested timber," he told Reuters, adding supporting the bill had helped protect the firm's brand.
Telling illegal and legal wood and wood products apart is impossible by sight alone, making it relatively easy to mislabel origin and forge import documents.
