GREENPEACE

Organgutans are an endangered forest species; Indonesia. GREENPEACE

Send a message to Hon David Carter Minster of Forestry urging him to take immediate steps to stop illegally logged timber and wood products being imported into New Zealand by supporting the Customs and Excise (Sustainable Timber) Amendment Bill. The bill will require timber entering the New Zealand market to be verified and audited as being from a legal source.

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Your message To: david.carter@parliament.govt.nz
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Message:
(Please edit the message as you see fit).
Dear Minister, I want to be sure when I buy timber products such as decking or outdoor furniture from overseas I am not buying illegally logged timber. I don’t want to steal from already impoverished communities and cheat them out of a fair price for their timber. I also do not want to be contributing to the destruction of tropical rainforests and climate change (given approximately 20% of global greenhouse emissions comes from deforestation). I therefore urge the New Zealand Government to take immediate steps to stop illegally logged timber and wood products being imported into New Zealand. I would like to see all major importers and retailers unable to sell products from illegal logging by the end of 2009. This requires timber entering the New Zealand market to be verified and audited as being from a legal source. As a step towards this I urge you to support the Green Party’s Customs and Excise (Sustainable Timber) Amendment Bill. Please act urgently to ban the import of illegal timber products – and therefore support communities to build their own sustainable future as well as contributing to saving the climate by protecting tropical rainforests. Yours sincerely,
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Rainforest clearance is one of the worst contributors to climate change and it destroys the last remaining habitat of the orangutan and Sumatran tiger so, as well as stopping palm kernel animal feed imports, New Zealand must also ensure that the timber we import isn't also contributing to rainforest destruction.

Over the next month the Government is working on a strategy for how it will deal with illegal timber imports, especially outdoor furniture and decking made from a popular tropical timber called kwila. Imports of kwila are contributing to the destruction of the rainforests of Indonesia, Malaysia and PNG.

The Green Party is to table a bill in parliament to amend the Customs Act so as to stop the import of illegal timber. We want this bill to get through its first reading. For this to happen the National government needs to support it.

You can help protect the rainforests by sending a message to the Minister of Forestry David Carter urging him to support the Greens bill as well as move quickly to stop the import of illegal timber imports. As a consumer country of products from the destruction of tropical rainforests such as timber or palm kernel, we need to act now to save the forests and the climate.