Source: carbonpositive.net

5 May 2010 - An alliance of US environmental groups and a workers union have called for trade sanctions to be used to stem the export of illegal timber from Indonesia to protect American jobs and industry. The BlueGreen Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club and United Steelworkers have released a report identifying the economic, social and environmental costs of illegal deforestation in Indonesia on both countries.

“Illegal logging undermines the forest products industry in the United States by distorting global prices of timber, undercutting sustainably manufactured products, and jeopardising the jobs of American workers,” the alliance says.

Deforestation alone catapults Indonesia into the top five of global greenhouse gas emitter nations. Forest loss is responsible for 80 per cent of the country’s emissions, dwarfing the contribution of industrial or energy emissions in the national carbon footprint. The alliance report, Illegal Logging In Indonesia: The Environmental, Economic and Social Costs, quotes latest estimates showing that up to 55 per cent of logging harvests in the country are illegal. A UN report in 2007 put the figures at 73-88 per cent.

A study for the American Forest & Paper Association in 2004 put the cost to the local US industry from depressed wood prices due to illegal logging at $1 billion. The alliance calls for action to curb the trade in illegally-sourced wood to cut high rates of deforestation and benefit communities and workers in both developed and developing countries.

For the complete article, please see carbonpositive.net.

You can also download the report "Illegal Logging In Indonesia: The Environmental, Economic and Social Costs" [PDF 750 KB].