Australia's Bilateral Agreements on Forestry
The Australian Government is working with governments in the Asia-Pacific region to improve their standards of forest management and combat illegal logging. DAFF collaborates with Australia's regional neighbours to shape and manage these and other key forestry issues through bilateral and multilateral agreements, and supporting skills and capacity building.
Australia is working closely with a number of countries to ensure the global forestry and forest management objectives - as agreed through the United Nations Forum on Forests - are achieved, including:
Papua New Guinea
Indonesia
Malaysia
Korea
China
New Zealand
Australia and Papua New Guinea
The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Hon. Tony Burke met with Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Minister for Forests, the Hon. Belden Namah in August 2008 to discuss strengthening cooperation on forestry and forest management. From these discussions a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was developed and later signed on 10 June 2009 between Minister Burke and Minister Namah on behalf of their respective governments. The aim of the MoU is to encourage greater cooperation in relation to:
- sustainable forest management and the certification of forests
- promoting improved trade, investment and sustainable development that includes improvements in the legal verification of the origins of timber and timber products
- identifying the capacity building needs to support future growth in the forest industry of both countries
- identifying areas for closer collaboration on forestry issues through the existing multilateral forestry forums
- identifying opportunities for closer collaboration on forest research activities which support mutually beneficial outcomes.
The MoU builds on the government’s election commitments to work with regional governments on sustainable forest management and combating illegal logging.
Further information regarding the signing of the MoU can be found on Minister Burke’s website.
Australia and Indonesia
The Australian and Indonesian Governments signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) in November 2008 concerning cooperation in forestry which primarily focuses on capacity building and verifying the legal origins of the timber products. The LoI builds on existing bilateral agreements between Australia and Indonesian governments; the Australia-Indonesia Ministerial Forum and the Working Group on Agriculture, Food and Forestry Cooperation (WGAFFC). The LoI provides a framework to support:
- cooperation on building capacity of forest professionals and experts to implement sustainable forest management practices in the region including preventing illegal logging
- working toward determining legal requirements for the trade of timber and wood products
- the development of systems that assure the legality of timber and wood products which include forest certification and chain of custody
- collaborate to enhance forest law enforcement and governance and encourage sourcing of timber and wood products from legal and sustainable forest practices.
Working Group on Agriculture, Food and Forestry Cooperation
Forestry was included as an area for cooperation at the June 2006 Australia-Indonesia Working Group on Agriculture and Food Cooperation (WGAFC) meeting. The purpose of the working group is to maximise opportunities and increase and strengthen cooperation between Australia and Indonesia on trade and investment in food, agriculture and forestry.
During the second meeting of the Forestry Taskforce held on the 26 August 2008 in Surakarta, Central Java at the 14th WGAFFC meeting, discussions were held on the role of the Forestry Taskforce in:
- forest conservation projects
- plantation management including fire management
- carbon investment opportunities
- combating illegal logging
- cooperation in international forums concerning sustainable forest management.
An inter-sessional Forestry Taskforce meeting was held in Jakarta in February this 2009. Further discussions took place regarding bilateral cooperation on issues including:
- proposals for consideration under the LoI
- the development of systems to identify and minimise trade in illegally logged timber
- areas of interest for phase II of Australia’s Asia-Pacific Forestry Skills Capacity Building Program.
The next WGAFFC meeting will be held in Australia in late 2009.
Other Australian – Indonesian Initiatives
In June 2008, the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Kevin Rudd and the President of Indonesia, the Hon. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, announced the Indonesia-Australia Forest Carbon Partnership. The Partnership builds on and formalises existing long-term practical cooperation between Indonesia and Australia on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).
Australia has committed $30 million to establish the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership. It will aim to trial an innovative, market-oriented approach to financing and implementing measures on REDD in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Australia and Malaysia
The Malaysia-Australia Agricultural Cooperation Working Group (MAACWG) met in Putra Jaya in August 2007 and agreed to expand the role of the Working Group to include forestry issues.
The Forestry and Timber Sub-Working Group under the MAACWG met in Canberra in December 2008. Australian and Malaysian representatives agreed to cooperate on activities in support of sustainable forest management, including:
- recognising the need to address illegal logging and promote further action on this matter through multilateral processes
- exploring cooperation in forest management certification and chain of custody schemes
- identifying and exploring areas of collaboration and cooperation on the international stage that both countries are engaged in such as the International Tropical Timber Organization and the United Nations Forum on Forests
The next MAACWG meeting will be held in Malaysia in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Australia and Korea
The Korea-Australia Forestry Cooperative Committee (KAFCC) meets approximately every two years. DAFF and the Korea Forest Service formed the Cooperative Committee in 1997.
The KAFCC is an effective medium for developing closer cooperation between Korea and Australia on forestry issues such as research, investment and trade.
Four meetings have been held to date. Australia and Korea have alternated in holding KAFCC meetings since the first meeting was held in September 1998 in Korea. The fourth meeting of the KAFCC was held in Canberra on 7 May 2007 and produced the following key outcomes:
- agreement to exchange information on investment opportunities in Australian plantations and export opportunities for Australian forest products to Korea
- to develop an understanding of the requirements for countries seeking to achieve forest certification
- agreement to arrange an exchange of forestry professionals between Korea and Australia.
The 5th KAFCC meeting will be held in Korea in the second-half of 2009.
Australia and China
There are two separate agreements between Australia and China for agricultural cooperation; they are the Australia-China Agricultural Cooperation Agreement (ACACA) and the Australia-China Agricultural Technical Cooperation Program (ATC). Both agreements have the mutual benefits of promoting cooperation on forestry issues and enhancing trade opportunities between the two countries.
ACACA was signed in 1984 to:
- enhance cooperation in a wide range of agricultural sectors
- develop agricultural trading relationships
- provide a forum for the exchange of scientific information.
Under ACACA, the 8th Australia-China joint working group on Forestry was held in Beijing in December 2008.
ACACA funded projects have included:
- Cooperation between the NSW Rural Fire Service and the Chinese State Forestry Administration to investigate forest fire management arrangements in fire prone provinces of China (2000)
PDF [195kb] - Introduction of provenances and potted seed orchard techniques for Eucalyptus nitens (2001) PDF [2mb]
- Salt tolerant eucalypts for the dual role of landscape recovery and commercial forestry (2004) PDF [4mb]
- Building capacity between Australia and China on forest certification (2007) PDF [2mb]
In 2008 ACACA funded a Chinese project to improve the productivity of Eucalyptus, especially cold tolerant eucalypts such as Eucalyptus nitens. As part of this project Australia hosted a Chinese delegation from the International Forestry Cooperation Center of the Chinese State Forestry Administration which included forestry representatives from Fujian Province.
The ATC program agreement was signed in December 2005 as a capacity building initiative to further technical exchange with China in sharing agricultural knowledge and skills in a mutually beneficial way. An ATC-funded forestry project is supporting a benchmarking study between China’s draft forest certification scheme and the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes. This project will be completed by mid-2009.
Australia and New Zealand
Through Australia’s Closer Economic Relationship (CER) agreement, Australia and New Zealand are seeking opportunities for cooperation in the areas of promoting sustainable forest management and combating illegal logging in the Asia-Pacific region.