New group barking up wrong tree

The new activist group ‘Markets for Change’ is barking up the wrong tree in its campaign against Australian grown forest products (Bid to stop sale of native timbers targets retailers page 3, SMH 9 May).
If successful, their campaign will have a perverse environmental outcome of increasing the use of imported products. Already, estimated $400 million worth of these imported products are from suspected illegal sources.
The retailers they are targeting can rest assured that Australian forest products are highly regulated. All major commercial state forests and plantations are managed to world’s best practice sustainability standards. These standards are independently certified by international standard setting organisations.
The modern forest industry also provides income and employment for regional communities in NSW in areas such as the mid-north coast and far south coast – many of which are not seeing the mining dollars so often spoken about.
If ‘Markets for Change’ are serious about achieving an environmental outcome, the group should actively promote the way the modern industry manages native forests in Australia.
Allan Hansard
Transitional CEO
Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA)