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Australian Government Forest Policy Commitments
The Australian Government policy is to enhance our sustainable forest management capacity and credentials, and to implement measures which stop illegal logging domestically and limits imports of illegally logged wood products.
The Rudd Labor Government has made the following commitments to forest policy in Australia:
- declaring ForestWorks as the new Forest and Forest Products Industry Skills Council and providing $1 million for its implementation. This initiative will build the skill base and capacity of the forest industries workforce, provide forest industries with direct input to National Skills Reporting, which informs government and the Vocational Education and Training sector of future skills needs, and will enhance monitoring of the effectiveness of forest and forest product industry training packages
- addressing the forest community’s need for a comprehensive industry wide database. It will provide $1 million to update the data contained in Forest and Wood Products Industry Workforce and Industry Data Collection research project, expand this database to meet the future needs of both government and industry, and develop world best practice benchmarks for the forest and forest products sectors
- providing $1 million to work with regional governments and industry to build capacity to prevent illegal harvesting of timber; develop and support certification schemes for timber and timber products sold in Australia; require disclosure at point of sale of species, country of origin and any certification; identify illegally logged timber and restrict its import into Australia; and argue for incentives within emerging global carbon markets for avoiding deforestation and better management of tropical rainforests
- commencing the development of the Climate Change and Forestry Adaptation Action Plan identified in the National Climate Change Adaptation Framework, addressing key impacts, vulnerabilities and research priorities, the potential adaptation tools and strategies in collaboration with industry, and the integration of climate change strategies. It will also invest $8 million to address major knowledge gaps about the impacts of climate change on forestry and the vulnerability of forest systems
- establishing a $9 million Forest Industries Development Fund to encourage ongoing investment in value adding industries and promoting the development of internationally competitive and ecologically sustainable forest and forest products industries to help boost the export of forest products.
The Australian Government is developing implementation plans for all its forestry commitments.
Last Updated: 16 Jun 2008
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