KEY POINTS:
The Government is considering a crackdown on illegally harvested tropical timber, but the Green Party says it should move immediately against the harmful trade.
Forestry Minister Jim Anderton says new research shows illegal logging in other countries costs New Zealand wood producers hundreds of millions of dollars in
the global marketplace.
He said the study, done for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, showed illegal logging depressed wood product prices, distorted international trade and cut New Zealand's export log prices by about 10 per cent - ultimately costing the industry about $266 million a year.
Mr Anderton said the Government would consult the industry, importers and retailers on a proposal to introduce new rules to ensure wood products sold in New Zealand were from legally logged timber.
The Government was also working internationally to back proposals to tackle global deforestation.
Illegal logging not only increased greenhouse gas emissions, it also discouraged sustainable forestry that helped slow climate change, he said.
But Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the Government needed to immediately ban products made from illegal logged timber.
The importation of wood furniture and parts had ballooned from about $90 million annually a few years ago to $236 million last year.
Much of that had come from China and Southeast Asian countries where illegal logging was rampant.
"It has come at the expense not only of the New Zealand timber industry but also of wildlife, human rights of indigenous people and the health of the planet climate-wise."
One measure it could immediately take without consultation was the banning of kwila timber imports until a regime of proving their source was in place, Mr Norman said.
Kwila is commonly sold in New Zealand as outdoor furniture and decking timber and the season for large quantities of imports is just about to begin.
"The present Government policy of 'discouraging' the importation of illegal wood means nothing when there is little or no real border control against it," Mr Norman said.
Mr Anderton defended the time the Government had taken to act on the issue.
He said a fair system needed to be worked out and imposing an outright ban on a type of wood such as kwila would be a breach of international agreements.
"You could be banning quite legally produced products if you just had an outright ban. You've got to have some system for doing this."
New Zealand's World Trade Organisation case against Australia over apple import access was an example, he said.
"We're asking for an evidence-based system ... you can't ask for rules to be adhered to and then abandon them ourselves."
Putting the onus on exporters to show the wood was legally logged was an option.
"We're a market of four million people - the market we are interested in, as a trading nation that exports up to 95 per cent of everything we produce, is the 7000 million others - we need them more than they need us.
He urged consumers to ask if furniture they bought was from legally logged wood.
- NZPA