Australia has moved to prohibit the importation of illegally logged timber with the passage of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011. A lot of timber products used to build homes in Australia are unwittingly sourced from illegal operations in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Indonesia. Environmental degradation, global warming and the impact illegal logging has on Australia's forestry industry were among the arguments for the ban. But the Australian Opposition says it'll hurt relations with countries Australia imports timber from. William F. Laurance is a Research Professor & Australian Laureate at James Cook University. He provided advice to the Senate on the bill, and he told Clement Paligaru the positives outweigh the negatives. Source: radioaustralia
Source:
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/onairhighlights/australia-to-ban-importation-of-illegally-logged-timber/1001860
