Ashleigh Wilson | April 18, 2008
INADEQUATE international laws are allowing an illegal timber trade worth more than $2 billion a year to flourish across the Asia-Pacific region, with 9 per cent of all timber imports to Australia coming from illicit sources.
The findings are contained in a report by the Australian Institute of Criminology, which says the revenue from illegal logging has been used to finance rogue regimes and human rights abuses.
The illegal trade, amid booming global demand for timber and timber products, results in lost government revenue and lasting environmental damage.
"Corruption and bribery at all levels of government are common at every stage of this illicit trade," the report says.
"In very extreme cases, illegal logging and timber trafficking have been used to generate revenue to finance coups, rogue regimes, human rights abuses and wars."
The report - by Andreas Schloenhardt, a senior lecturer in criminal law at the University of Queensland, and published this week - details the "alarming" illegal trade in a region that already has the world's highest annual rate of deforestation.
It cites previous research that claimed illegal trade represented up to 70 per cent of the $US100 billion ($107billion) industry worldwide.
Developing countries were the worst offenders, it says, with Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea considered "significant sources" of illegal timber. Up to 73 per cent of timber exported from Indonesia, and 35 per cent from Malaysia, was estimated to be illegal.
China was believed to be the world's largest consumer of illegal timber, with 32per cent of its timber, pulp and paper imports in 2000 from illicit sources.
"Illegal logging appears to be particularly rampant in those countries in which forests are in remote locations that are distant from administration centres and are difficult to access for government officials and inspectors," the report says.
"Furthermore, levels of law enforcement - and lack thereof - have a direct impact on the levels of illegal logging and associated activities."
The report says Australia is the third biggest importer of timber or timber products in the region, behind China and Japan. About 9 per cent of timber or timber products imported into Australia, worth $452 million, comes from the illegal industry. And the illicit trade is responsible for 22 per cent of all wooden furniture imported into Australia.
The report says the consumption of illegal timber is "not criminalised and largely not regulated" in Australia.
"It is this demand, especially for cheap timber supplies, that fuels the trade in illegal timber and translates into higher levels of illegal logging abroad," it says.
The report says no single international law exists to specifically suppress the illicit trade despite a "vast array" of treaties, agreements and organisations focused on the issue.
