The federal government has been urged to do more to ensure illegally logged forest doesn’t end up as paper sold in Australia, as delegates gather in Sydney for a once-a-decade international forum on conservation.

Around 5,000 delegates from more than 160 countries have descended on the city for the week-long World Parks Congress, which is organised by the IUCN, the conservation body that advises the United Nations. It has been held each decade since 1962.

Representatives will thrash out an agreed way of reaching a key conservation goal – to formally protect at least 17% of land and 10% of oceans by 2020. Climate change, poaching and illegal logging and mining will also be on the agenda.

Julia Marton-Lefèvre, director general of the IUCN, has called on governments to do more to meet this goal, pointing out that while 15% of the world is now protected, only 3% of the oceans are in reserves.



Ahead of the congress, the Australian government has committed $6m from its aid program to combat illegal logging. The money will be used in the third phase of the responsible Asia forestry and trade program, due to start in July 2015, which encourages sustainable use of forests and helps Australian businesses purchase responsibly-logged products.

Greg Hunt, the environment minister, said it was vital to safeguard rainforests and other protected areas in order to maintain clean air and water.

“The congress will set the agenda for protected areas for the next decade – a huge mandate,” he said. “Over the next seven days we’ll be tackling some of the complex problems facing our people, parks and planet.

“Developing solutions to these challenges is a global business. I’ll be meeting with many world leaders and experts over the next few days, to share our ideas and make new commitments to our environment, not only here in Australia but in the Asia-Pacific region and globally.”

But environmental groups have called for tougher action by Australia to protect forests. Greenpeace said it has taken photos it says shows Asia Pacific Resources Holdings Limited, or APRIL, destroying forest on fragile peat land in the Riau province of Indonesia.

APRIL supplies a number of Australian businesses, including two office retail chains. The company has introduced a sustainable forestry policy but green groups have said it is inadequate and that Australians could unwittingly be buying paper that has rainforest in it.

“We’re calling for actions, not just words from minister Hunt’, said Greenpeace forest campaigner Jessica Panegyres. “These pictures show completely unacceptable destruction of rainforests and peat lands, yet the products of this destruction are compatible with Australia’s current policies.

“Until Australia adopts and implements policies that ensure only deforestation-free products are sold within its borders, we’re part of the problem. We need concrete action from the government and business.”

WWF, the Forest Peoples Programme and the Uniting Church in Australia have released a five-point action plan to combat rainforest loss.

The plan calls for the Australian government to adopt trade and procurement policies that remove illegally-logged timber from supply chains, end deforestation in Australia and provide $200m to establish an Asia-Pacific Forests Fund to promote sustainable forest management and agriculture.

Conservationists have said Australia should be commended for implementing the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act, but eyebrows have been raised domestically and abroad at recent government policies, including the failed bid to strip world heritage protection from 74,000ha of Tasmanian forests and the tearing up of management plans that would have created the world’s largest network of protected marine reserves.

“We know that protected areas work, both for conserving nature and for ensuring the wellbeing of people,” said Marton-Lefèvre at the opening day of the congress, which will be held at Sydney’s Olympic Park.

“In Sydney, we want to place them at the heart of our economies and societies. With today’s growing challenges, including climate change, disasters, food and water security, lack of economic stability and the rise of infectious diseases, it is high time we start using the solutions that nature offers us.”