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Forestry & Development E-News |
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www.forestryanddevelopment.com August 2007 |
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Forestry & Development E-News is an electronic newsletter
which reports and comments on regional and international developments in
forestry. If you do not wish to receive Forestry & Development
E-News, please click here. |
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Forests
and climate change are becoming more prominent in international policy. At the Australian Government’s High Level Meeting
on Forests and Climate, which took place in
Specifically,
Australia committed A$10 million to support the reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions from deforestation and to promote sustainable forest management in
Indonesia. In
addition, During
the High Level Meeting the World Bank’s forestry advisor and chair of the
World Bank-WWF Alliance, Gerhard Dieterle,
responded to a question about whether the FCPF would require forestry
production in primary, moist tropical forests to be certified as required in
World Bank financing, given that the World Bank’s approval of certification
schemes has been dictated by the World Bank-WWF Alliance – a bias towards
FSC, which WWF co-founded. The World
Bank acknowledged it had received criticism about this policy from the
Governments of Australia, the
The World Bank presentation on FCPF is available here. The World Bank presentation on REDD is
available here. |
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WOOLWORTHS SUPPLY CHAIN PRESSURED
BY NGOs 30/8/2007:
Australian supermarket chain Woolworths has withdrawn tens of thousands of
units of tissue and paper products after ceding to NGO pressure over its
links with an Indonesian paper supplier.
NGOs have made allegations that a range of products labelled with a
“Sustainable Forest Fibre” logo were sourced from unsustainable forestry
practices. Woolworths sources these
products from Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), an Indonesian company that has long
been a target of NGOs such as Greenpeace. The
Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council (A3P) issued a
press release in which it called on Woolworths to “re-examine its
supply chain”. A3P has urged consumers to “buy products with
fibre sourced from sustainably managed plantations
certified under internationally recognised sustainable forest management
certification schemes such as the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest
Certification (includes the Australian Forestry Standard) and the Forest
Stewardship Council.” Woolworths
is now investigating the claims made in the logo. It has engaged the World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF) to assist the company to examine its supply chain. NZ GREENS TARGET DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES, BANKS 20/8/2007:
The forestry industry in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has again come under attack
from environmental activists who are using financial institutions as leverage
in their anti-forestry campaigns. The
New Zealand Greens Party has launched an attack against the ANZ Banking Group
in a coordinated campaign with the New Zealand Financial Sector Workers’
Union (FINSEC). The groups have urged
a consumer boycott against the bank. The banking group has previously been
the target of campaigns from NGOs in The
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) mounted a campaign against ANZ in
7/8/2007:
The New Zealand Government has announced
that it will consult industry, importers and retailers on a new proposal to
introduce rules on the legality of imported timber products. ILLEGAL LOGGING BILL INTRODUCED TO US SENATE 1/8/2007:
An illegal logging Bill has been introduced into the US Senate. The
‘Bipartisan Combat Illegal Logging Act’ follows the introduction of a Bill
against illegal logging tabled in US Congress in March of this year. The Bill's text is in many ways identical
to the earlier Bill that was introduced in March this year. The
Lacey Act has been identified by anti-logging
groups as a potential model for legislation.
Submission of a Bill to the US Senate is no indication of a likely
change in policy by the Administration on any subject. Submitting a Bill with no expectation it
will be passed is a common way of drawing attention to an issue. REVISED
AUSTRALIAN FORESTRY STANDARD GAINS RECOGNITION AS AN AUSTRALIAN STANDARD The Australian Forestry Standard ( A number of changes were made to the Standard
from its 2003 version, which was recognised by Standards Australia as an
‘interim standard’. The revised standard will not certify plantation forestry
on cleared native forest land. It also provides greater transparency for the
certification process and a greater regard for social and indigenous interests
in forest management. The AFCS is endorsed by the Programme for the
Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC). A related press release
issued by The AFS, like PEFC, follows world’s best practice
for governance arrangements. WWF refused to participate in the preparation of
the AFS and its forest certification associate, FSC, has lobbied
unsuccessfully against the AFS and PEFC among governments in |
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