How much of a threat does illegal logging pose to the local forestry industry?
TONY BURKE: This report finds that something in the order of 90% of what we import is believed to be logged legally and the remainder has some pretty big question marks over it. Now, when it arrives, it just arrives as timber – it arrives as wood and forest products. So you need to be able to have that certification and verification of tracing through from the time it was logged legally through the process of manufacturing right through to import. If you can get that value chain properly certified and verified then you get to the point that what is coming into Australia is much more likely to only be timber that is logged legally. Certainly we know what we’ve got here in Australia is logged legally, we don’t have the illegal logging problems that many countries face but it is in our interests to help them stop their own illegal logging. JOURNALIST: What are the sorts of things that consumers can do to take note of what they’re buying? TONY BURKE: At the moment consumers are pretty limi
