Illegal Logging Compliance

If you are importing products from pathways that the department considers pose a high risk of containing illegally logged material, you may be sent a notice.

If you have previously been assessed or audited by the department and received a compliance report identifying non-compliant processes, you may be subject to future compliance assessments or audits. This is particularly the case if the products you are importing fall into a high-risk category.

We have developed an understanding of the pathways and products that pose the greatest risk of containing illegally logged material. Our compliance efforts focus on these areas. We determine highest risk through analysis of trends in regulated imports, combined with intelligence and information shared or available through our domestic and international engagement and intelligence networks.

1. Products from fragile and conflict affected areas

   Fragile and conflict-affected parts of the world are characterised by limited institutional capacity, ineffective laws and governance arrangements and political instability. While it is possible to buy legal wood from these areas, responsible buyers must negotiate unclear political mandates, contested laws, weak governance and lack of enforcement relating to forest protection. Official documents may also be vulnerable to fraud or forgery.

   Australian companies considering importing timber from these areas need to invest significant resources to ensure that their due diligence practices are strong. They must also ensure the resultant risk assessments and risk mitigation practices are robust. Many reports and tools are available online to help determine which areas fall into this high-risk category.

   Sawn wood is the most common product imported from these types of regions. However, other common product categories include veneers, moulding and strips, joinery products and plywood.

   In this category, we will consider risks reported by non-government organisations. This includes suspensions or terminations of the operation of timber legality framework approvals within conflict affected areas. Imports from conflict affected areas may be targeted for compliance assessment or audit.

2. CITES listed species and other species of concern

   We are strongly committed to supporting the efforts of other nations to protect their threatened timber species. This includes the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as well as country-specific threatened species protection legislation. We work closely with the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to better track and monitor the trade in CITES listed species. We also work with enforcement agencies in other countries.

   We will continue targeting species from key areas of concern. We particularly look for where illicit substitution may occur and/or where products made from threatened or illegally harvested species may be imported. Our analytical software alerts us to the importation of many goods likely to contain species of concern. We continually update the data filtering and querying capabilities within this software to remain agile and responsive to any timber products of concern.

3. Complex supply chains – sourcing through multiple countries

   We understand that long and complex supply chains make it more difficult to complete comprehensive assessments of the origin and/or species of the timber used in regulated products. However, complex supply chains may also increase the risk of a product containing illegally harvested timber. This is because each additional step in the supply chain represents another potential point where illegal timber could be used in the product. The more complex your supply chain, the more information you need to gather to determine the risk of the product containing illegal timber.

   In this category, we will be looking particularly at imports from countries that have international reputations as ‘tax havens’. This includes locations alleged through our intelligence gathering to be notable supply routes for laundering illegal timber.

4. Environmental non-government organisation reports and studies

   There are a number of environmental non-government organisations who have spent time amassing considerable information and skill in monitoring and tracking illegal logging. These groups have people on the ground in high-risk countries. In some cases, they have built up substantial evidence regarding high risk pathways and supply chains.

   We will continue to work with these groups as a source of information to support our compliance operations. We closely monitor information presented through their reports and review allegations made.