Over the coming months, the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources will be undertaking a range of outreach and education activities to promote improved awareness and understanding of Australia’s illegal logging laws. Source: Timberbiz
During the second half of 2018, the department will be hosting a series of interactive webinars on Australia’s illegal logging laws. These hour-long events will provide importers with targeted information about the laws, the due diligence requirements, and how the department is promoting compliance with the laws.
The events will be of value to anyone who regularly imports wood, pulp or paper products into Australia, or who has an interest in Australia’s illegal logging laws.
The first webinar in the series will be held on Monday, 20 August 2018.
The webinars will be run with the easy to use GoToWebinar software package, the webinars will also allow participants to ask the department and relevant experts any questions they have about the laws and due diligence requirements.
To learn more about the webinar series and to register your participation in the events, visit: https://goo.gl/w56zTN
The department has updated its illegal logging web pages to provide improved information about the illegal logging laws and the due diligence requirements.
The updated pages include clearer and more streamlined guidance on the laws, along with new supporting case studies; answers to commonly asked questions; useful online resources; and helpful due diligence risk assessment materials.
You can view the updated pages at: www.agriculture.gov.au/illegallogging
The department has also published a new animated video highlighting the significant costs of the illegal timber trade and explaining what Australia is doing to combat this issue.
The animated video will be circulated through a range of social media channels in the coming weeks to raise general awareness of this issue.
The fight against illegal logging continues throughout the world. One recent case brought to light detailed how Romania’s security forces mounted a series of raids to break up an alleged €25m illegal logging ring. The operation was believed to be the largest of its kind seen in Europe.
Officers from Romania’s Directorate for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) raided 23 addresses – including factories owned by the Austrian timber group Schweighofer Holzindustrie.
A statement from DIICOT noted that they had “reasonable suspicion that, since 2011, several individuals have constituted an organised criminal group, the members of the group acting to hijack the organisation of public auctions at the level of forestry departments.”
The case involves illegal logging undertaken in the Carpathian mountains, which shelter some of Europe’s last virgin forests. It follows an earlier report by the Environment Investigation Agency (EIA), which had found evidence of illegally sourced wood entering Schweighofer’s supply chain.
