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Australian treaty signing on logging most welcome
ACFID Media Release
25 September 2008
15/08
AUSTRALIAN TREATY SIGNING ON LOGGING MOST WELCOME
The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) welcomes Australia's ratification of the UN International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) today.
"Timber logging, specifically illegal logging practices, and unsustainable management of tropical timber forests are crucial issues in our fight against climate change and in our fight against poverty," said Paul O’Callaghan, ACFID’s Executive Director.
He continued: "Tropical forests are vital for the economies of our developing neighbour countries such as Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Also, the livelihoods of many people in our region – in Asia and the Pacific – depend on forestry."
"Logging, illegal or not, has far-reaching consequences. For example, governments giving logging companies preferential access to publicly-owned forests, governments expropriating villagers' rights over local forests, corrupt officials demanding bribes from small-scale harvesters and traders and so on," he said.
"This treaty is a step in the right direction and will assist in the battle against two of the world's greatest challenges: poverty and climate change," said Mr O’Callaghan.
In response to the government's Green Paper on climate change, ACFID has previously suggested that the government should utilise 10% of revenue raised from the sale of carbon emissions permits for specific climate change development projects. This money would assist countries in our region likely to be most impacted by climate change.
For further information, contact:
Paul O’Callaghan
Executive Director
Ph: 0434 142 069
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