Forest Letter Watch Blog

Forestry stand-off moves north

2012-01-25T15:57:00.000+11:00

STAN GORTON

Narooma News, 25 Jan, 2012

FORESTS NSW has asked police to investigate thefts and vandalism to a logging contractor’s machinery near Batemans Bay over the weekend.

Forests NSW Southern Region manager Daniel Tuan said the thefts of radios, tools, GPS equipment and other material worth thousands of dollars had taken place in Boyne State Forest on Friday night and was discovered on Saturday.

On Sunday night vandals broke into the same four pieces of machinery and set off fire protection equipment.

“These thefts of essential and expensive equipment can be a lasting setback to forestry operators,” Mr Tuan said.

“UHF radios are an essential operating and safety measure.

“Operators of these pieces of heavy machinery have to be aware of each other and visitors to the workplace.

“The GPS equipment is used to help the contractors comply with the exacting operating procedures they work under to ensure they are harvesting in an environmentally sustainable manner.

“The loss of time in replacing this equipment, as well as the cost, is a major impost on their operating budget and a setback to Forests NSW which needs to supply timber to its customers.”

Mr Tuan said the vandalism of the fire protection units was also a risk to operator health and safety in a difficult workplace environment.

Forests NSW is harvesting spotted gum sawlogs from Boyne State Forest for the local sawmill industry.

There is a long history of harvesting in the area.

In solidarity with Victorian conservationists in the Central Highlands, protestors from South East Forest Rescue (SEFR) last week claim to have halted logging operations Boyne State Forest north of Batemans Bay.

The conservation group claims to have found more illegal logging in Compartment 99 and is calling for an end to native forest logging on public land.

Their action saw four logging machines attached by high tensile steel cable to a structure in a tree 20 metres off the ground, and a banner stating “Carbon Criminals”.

Boyne State Forest is part of the National Estate Register, contains records of nationally listed endangered species, as well as state-listed species, such as swift parrots, yellow-bellied gliders, masked and sooty owls.

South East Forest Rescue’s nocturnal fauna survey revealed greater gliders, feather-tailed gliders and sugar gliders as well as micro bats.

SEFR have demanded that the state-run logging agency Forests NSW guarantee there will be no impacts on the environment as a result of the logging and to guarantee any logging Forests NSW and their authorised contractors undertake will not impact on the health and wellbeing of the citizens of New South Wales, being both present and future unborn generations.

“These contractors are repeat offenders,” said Ms Stone, spokesperson for SEFR. “In Dampier State Forest and Bodalla State Forest in the foothills of Gulaga Mountain near Narooma, we uncovered breaches of the licence conditions committed by this contractor.”

“The Office of Environment and Heritage upheld these breaches,” Ms Stone said.

“Old-growth forest, ecologically mature forest, was logged.

Clear felled hillsides are not any form of environmental protection. There are now serious adverse impacts to the many threatened species of the area, and the water catchment

Deanmill timber mill workers return

2012-01-19T16:26:00.003+11:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), January 19, 2012

The Shire of Manjimup in south-west Western Australia says the return of workers to the Deanmill timber mill is a significant step forward for the town.

Dozens of timber workers lost their jobs when Gunns Limited closed the mill early last year.

Auswest Timber, which bought the mill in December, switched its saws back on this week, employing 31 new workers.

It plans to employ 20 more when the mill is officially opened in March.

Shire president Wade De Campo says the future of Manjimup's timber industry is looking bright.

"It's created optimism I think in the air of the community," he said.

"Coupled with plans that we have for the timber industry for long-term as a local government, then I think the future is bright in that regard.

Logging breaches discovered by conservationists in Yambulla State Forest

2012-01-18T10:37:00.011+11:00

MEDIA RELEASE
18/01/2012

Following the reports on unlawful logging in State forest on the south coast, the conservation group South East Forest Rescue today found more illegal logging in Yambulla State Forest. This is the third time these type of breaches have been discovered in these particular compartments.

The conservationists are calling for a halt to native forest logging operations.

The compartment contains records of nationally listed endangered species such as Glossy Black Cockatoos, Smokey Mice, Southern Brown Bandicoots, Tiger Quolls, Eastern Pygmy Possums, Bent Wing Bats, Yellow-bellied Gliders, Gang Gang Cockatoos and White-Footed Dunnarts.

Environmentalists used a large wooden tripod attached to a structure in a tree 25 metres high with a person in it to halt logging operations south of Eden on the New South Wales far south coast.

There were four Rocky Outcrops in Yambulla State Forest Cpt 444 that have been logged. This is unlawful under the licence conditions. (Eden Region TSL regulation 5.11).

“The response from Forests NSW shows the complete lack of regard for the licence conditions that Forests NSW and their contractors must abide by,” said Ms Stone of SEFR. “The licence conditions for threatened species and habitat conservation are not being adhered to, even though the conditions are grossly inadequate.”

“We have reported the breaches in this compartment to the Office of Environment and Heritage,” said Ms Stone. “We stated last time that the probability of further breaches in this compartment if harvesting continues is high given that this logging contractor is a repeat offender and that FNSW still is not complying with the licence conditions.”

"These breaches have caused major environmental damage. We have called on the Federal Minister for the Environment to take action.”

“We’re calling on the NSW Minister for the Environment to prosecute Forests NSW without further delay,” she said. “Verbal and written warnings have been ineffective in rectifying this behaviour nor commensurate with the degree of environmental damage being inflicted upon threatened species habitat.”

"FNSW has had enough chances to get this simple direction right over 13 years and have failed miserably. The time is over for 'education'. It is now time for the government to get serious and prosecute public
forest offenders of serious environmental damage as they are prosecuted on private land."

Contact Lisa Stone on 0428 640 271

Gillard defends new forest deal

2012-01-16T22:29:00.001+11:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), January 16, 2012

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has urged environmentalists to stick with Tasmania's forest peace deal, despite their concerns about a new conservation agreement.

The state and federal governments last week gave Forestry Tasmania approval to continue logging 2,000 hectares of the 430,000 hectares of native forest earmarked for protection.

The Government insists it is necessary for industry to meet existing contracts, but the Greens say it is a breach of the original peace deal.

On a visit to the state, Ms Gillard said it was just an interim agreement until the conservation value of the forest was properly verified.

"The process has been agreed to, Jonathan West was the person agreed to, so I do expect people who have been in that process every step of the way to hold to the process that they agreed to," she said.

"When you read the agreement we always said that we would be guaranteeing wood supply for current contracts and we've done that.

"As a result of the interim conservation agreement Minister Tony Burke signed, 99.5 per cent of the nominated area for interim protection is being protected."

The Greens are disappointed that while in the state, Ms Gillard did not take up an invitation to visit disputed areas.

One protester remains in a 60-metre-high tree-sit.

Greens Leader Bob Brown says members of Still Wild Still Threatened asked Ms Gillard to see the forest first hand.

"She hasn't taken up the invitation from Miranda Gibson, who's sitting 60 metres up in a tree below Mount Mueller in the World Heritage Area," he said.

"[Ms Gibson] has been there for four weeks in a coupe the Prime Minister says would be protected."

Taxpayers stump up for logging policy failures

2012-01-10T22:34:00.000+11:00

Andrew Darby, Age and Sydney Morning Herald Hobart correspondent
The Age, January 10, 2012

As $45 million of your taxes is about to be divvied up for broke loggers, a worrying precedent has come to light that raises serious questions about this bailout of a struggling industry.

Attempts by successive federal governments to pay businesses out of the native forest industry in Tasmania have failed to meet basic benchmarks for proper government funding — let alone meet the goal of making the industry more sustainable.

Instead, largesse for new equipment in one program was followed by a more costly exit package to some of the same businesses in the next program.

These failures, by both the Howard and now Labor governments, are being pursued through Senate committees and questions by Greens senator Christine Milne. They are recorded in the dry accounting language of an Ernst & Young investigation into a $54 million Howard government program run by the Federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

There’s no question that the island’s native timber industry is in a dire state. ANU researcher Dr Jacki Schirmer found in a 2010 study for the Forestry CRC that one-third of Tasmania’s forest workers had lost their jobs in the previous two years. The burdens of the high dollar, global market shifts to certified plantation timber, and environmental campaigns were largely to blame.

When the crisis was gaining pace five years ago, the Howard government established the $54 million Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement Industry Development Program. It handed out 108 grants ranging from $6000 to $10.5 million, mainly to buy new logging machinery or upgrade existing timber plant with the aim of keeping pace with market shifts.

In a pre-election boost from the then forests minister Eric Abetz, the grant winners even gained an extra 30 per cent to compensate for tax.

But in 2008 the federal Auditor-General cast a very cold eye over this program, saying it failed taxpayers, and the department asked Ernst & Young to investigate in 2010.

The Ernst & Young study said department files were so deficient that in 60 cases it could not find the grantees’ own audited income and expenditure statements in support of their applications. That means the files lacked the basic proof that the grantees actually needed a grant. It said that in 29 cases, money was handed over before funding deed requirements were met.

In 26 cases, either there was no confirmation the claim was for an approved purchase, they were given more money than agreed, or there was no tax invoice on file.

This was your money — gone.

After these grants were given out, Tasmania’s native forest industry crashed. To meet this fresh crisis, another $17 million was made available by the Labor government in a department exit assistance program in late 2010.

Comparison of grant awardees in the two programs show that at least five contractors given grants of up to $410,000 for big new logging machines in the 2007-9 program later won up to $825,000 to leave the Tasmanian industry in 2010-11. They had won money to stay, followed by money to go.

A Victorian sawmiller was given $175,000 to build a sawmill in remote Roger River, Tasmania, but only partially completed it, according to the report. The big manufacturer Australian Paper, given $1.48 million for new boilers and paper-winding equipment at its Wesley Vale mill, shut the plant in March 2010.
Following public complaints, the department conducted an investigation into alleged fraud into the 2010-11 program, but did not refer any matters to the AFP.

Now the department is considering applications for the third, $45 million, tranche of aid to the loggers — the Contractors’ Voluntary Exit Grants Program.

There have been 98 applications, and most appear to be treating the taxpayer in time-honoured fashion. According to the department, almost 75 per cent of applications lack enough information for the department to make a final decision.

It says an advisory panel has sought independent financial assessment of applications, which could be finalised ‘‘early in the new year’’.

With the lesson of history on her side, Senator Milne doubts the money will be properly spent. ‘‘To that end I’m calling for an overhaul of DAFF’s internal audit committee so a majority is independent, and secondly, that it is mandatory to apply international auditing standards,’’ Senator Milne said.

A department spokeswoman said it had fully agreed to all of the recommendations made in Ernst & Young’s report.

But as bailouts go, the lesson here is to watch closely.

Vision for a new Tasmanian forest sector

2012-01-10T22:31:00.000+11:00

Tasmanian Country Hour - ABC Rural Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Tuesday, 10 January 2012

The start of 2012 coincides with a new Forestry Tasmania vision for the industry.

Their forestry innovation plan released late last year outlines what they describe as a once in a generation opportunity to re-engineer Tasmania's forest sector.

The plan takes into account the fact that under the intergovernmental agreement there will be less timber available from native forests, at the same time as increasing supplies from plantations.

Forestry Tasmania's managing director Bob Gordon says the market is looking for certified wood products, and in particular, engineered products made hardwood and softwood, and from a mix of native forests and plantations.

Bob Gordon says its about diverting products from the woodchip market, into innovative, engineered wood products.

Mill energy plan a step closer

2011-12-22T22:42:00.000+11:00

Shauna Black
The Islander, 22 Dec, 2011

WA-Based timber company RuralAus has cleared the first major hurdle in its bid to build a biomass energy plant at its timber mill operations near Parndana.

The company has completed a feasibility study into the project, which aims to generate five to 10 megawatts of power from mill waste, using 2MW for its own operations and making the rest available to other island users.

RuralAus chief executive officer John Ipsen said the feasibility study, completed with a State Government grant, had shown the project should proceed to the next stage and “what we shouldn’t be doing, what technology we shouldn’t use”.

RuralAus will now employ a project manager to get a “bankable project” by the end of this financial year, with completion of the plant in mid to late-2013. It has been encouraged to seek further government grants to support the project to its next level.

“I’m confident the project will happen. There are too many relevant milestones achieved already. We have our own resources, the mill, the government is aware of the island’s energy situation and we have the support of governments,” Mr Ipsen said.

“We just need to get in there and tick all the boxes.”

He said RuralAus was ready to work on the cable and infrastructure issues with stakeholders.

“We see this project as complementing other initiatives, such as Island Energy. We are keen to work with other government and community groups in a whole-of-island approach.”

Meanwhile, RuralAus has interim planning approval to operate the mill at Parndana on a trial basis one day a week.

“We’ve already employed 8 people and we hope to increase that to 30,” Mr Ipsen said.

British firm blacklists Tasmanian timber

2011-12-22T22:06:00.000+11:00

Conor Duffy, Environment Reporter
ABC AM by December 22, 2011

PHOTO: The UK company says it only wants to buy timber produced in a responsible manner. (ABC News)

The Prime Minister's peace deal was supposed to end decades of conflict in Tasmania's forests but protests are continuing.

Now, a London company is boycotting timber products from the island state.

Last month it emerged timber from Tasmanian forests was being used on London Olympic building sites.

The purchaser of the timber products says it will no longer buy the Tasmanian timber from Ta Ann products due to lobbying by activists.

That has infuriated the company, industry and the State Government.

Tim Birch from Markets for Change was among the environmentalists who flew to London.

"Our investigations working with environmental groups in Tasmania clearly has shown that Ta Ann continue to source products coming from these vital forests, and so we went to London to visit a number of companies to inform them of exactly what was happening."

While the Prime Minister's peace deal does say there should be no logging in these forests, the areas are still being assessed to determine if they are actually high conservation value.
Forestry Tasmania says that under the deal it is allowed to keep logging in these areas to supply Ta Ann.
Nevertheless Ian Attwood, the managing director of International Plywood which bought Ta Ann's timber for the Olympics says his company is now boycotting Ta Ann's products.

"The reason we've stopped or we've suspended purchasing from Ta Ann is mainly because of the controversy around the logging in Tasmanian forestry," he said.

"The NGO's will have to be happy with any changes that they can make to enable the product to be purchased by us again."

Mr Attwood says he was concerned by what he heard from two activist groups: Markets for Change and the Huon Valley Environment Centre.

"We're not there to, you know, to savage the forests. We're here to try and buy product in a responsible manner."

That is hotly contested by Forestry Tasmania, Ta Ann and the Tasmanian Government.

The company's products are certified as sustainable under the international PEFC scheme.

Misrepresented
David Ridley from Ta Ann is overseas, however his manager Greg Hickey says the company's practices have been misrepresented.

"It is concerning that they're going and targeting our customers, mainly because of the certification that we have which points to our environmental credentials."

"Our real concern is that if our customers don't buy from us then they're going to buy from potentially illegally-logged sources."

Ken Jeffreys from Forestry Tasmania has attacked the green groups for targeting Ta Ann's customers.

"We're talking about a situation here that is reminiscent of the 1930s, where if you didn't pay protection your shop was burnt the next day."

"Now the same is occurring today. The activists go these companies, they say unless you do what we want, we're going to blackball your products."

AM also has a letter Tasmania's Deputy Premier Bryan Green wrote to International Plywood urging them to continue buying timber from Ta Ann.

Mr Attwood says he found the arguments of the activists more persuasive.
Clearly the battles of the past are far from over despite the forest peace deal.

MEDIA RELEASE: Ta Ann Tasmanian Native Forest Veneer Rejected By UK Market

2011-12-22T21:59:00.000+11:00

Markets for Change, 22 December 2011

International Plywood, a major UK importer of plywood from Ta Ann’s Tasmania operations has told the Australian ENGO Markets for Change that they will not be purchasing any more timber from Ta Ann while the controversy around ongoing logging of Tasmania’s High Conservation Value (HCV) and old growth forests continues.

“Markets for Change is encouraged that the international market is so concerned about the ongoing destruction of Tasmania’s high conservation value forests that International Plywood from the UK has taken the decision to no longer buy Ta Ann Tasmania’s plywood product. It is significant that even though Ta Ann had PEFC (1) certification for this product the market has still rejected it as it is sourced from such valuable forests,” said Tim Birch CEO of Markets for Change.

Markets for Change (MFC) recently released detailed research tracking Ta Ann veneer timber from Tasmania’s high conservation forests through Malaysia to London and a sports hall to be used in training by Team USA during the 2012 London Olympics. (2)

Detailed analysis by Market for Change’s partner NGO in Tasmania (Huon Valley Environment Centre) has clearly shown that Ta Ann Tasmania’s operations continue to receive wood products coming from high conservation value forests in Tasmania. These forests have already been earmarked for protection by the Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) in Tasmania, yet they continue to be logged. (3)

“This decision by International Plywood sends a clear message to Ta Ann that their association with the destruction of Tasmania’s high conservation value forests is bad for business. Ta Ann can no longer claim that their veneer product is sourced from plantations and sustainable regrowth forests. They must take immediate steps to remove identified high conservation forests from their supply chain,” said Will Mooney from Huon Valley Environment Centre.

Following the release of this research Markets for Change contacted a number of UK companies involved in the supply of Ta Ann Tasmania veneer plywood to the UK market. International Plywood UK were surprised when evidence was provided by MFC and Huon Valley Environment Centre showing Ta Ann Tasmania were sourcing wood products from high conservation value forests as they were under the clear impression that they were purchasing wood products from Ta Ann that came from plantations. Even a recent letter from the Deputy Premier of Tasmania, Brian Green to International Plywood UK urging them to continue buying from Ta Ann Tasmania did not persuade the company to continue purchasing veneer plywood from Ta Ann Tasmania.

Markets for Change will continue its campaign, nationally and internationally, to urge the market to reject wood products coming from High Conservation Value forests and instead trade in wood products sourced from ecologically responsible plantations.

Markets for Change is committed to supporting an Australian forest industry based on well managed FSC certified plantation products. Such a plantation based timber industry will ensure long term secure jobs for workers and the protection of native forests.

NOTES
1. The Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) has been widely criticised by international environment groups as it is not an indicator of acceptable environmental standards and does not safeguard high conservation value from ongoing logging.

2. http://www.marketsforchange.org/2012-olympics-timber/

3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/72216112/Ta-Ann-Final-Report-2011-Web

Loggers are clearing bushland at rising rate

2011-12-21T23:23:00.000+11:00

Ben Cubby
Sydney Morning Herald, December 21, 2011

Soaring numbers ... an area equivalent to 138,400 football fields was cleared in NSW's bushland last year. Photo: Pat Scala

THE amount of bushland being cleared by logging in NSW soared last year to the highest level since state-wide records began in 1988.

An area equivalent to 138,400 football fields was cleared for crops, forestry or infrastructure, says a government report.

The Office of Environment and Heritage said the rise in logging was probably cancelled out by regrowth, leading to no net loss of trees, though its most recent survey took place in 2008, before the land clearing spike. It said the reasons for the logging increase were unclear.

"[The] most likely factors relate to market demand and favourable climatic conditions and [they] can be expected to fluctuate over time," a department spokesman said. "It is also possible that recent changes in forestry methods are more readily detectable by satellite monitoring."

Environment groups said the annual vegetation report was evidence that logging companies were operating in an unrestrained manner.

Bushfires remain the biggest destroyer of forests in the state, leading to a net loss of 48,300 hectares in 2010, the report said.

But logging activities now come a close second, accounting for the removal of 42,700 hectares of trees in 2010. This is up from 31,000 hectares the previous year, and an average of about 21,000 hectares a year since 1988.

About 21,200 hectares of bushland was cleared in 2010 to make new areas for crops and grazing, while 5300 hectares were cut down to make way for roads, factories and housing.

"The NSW government is currently conducting a review of native vegetation controls," said the chief executive of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Pepe Clarke. "They should take this report as a warning - what is required are stronger land- clearing laws that do more to protect the environment, not weaker ones."

The Wilderness Society said the government had "failed in its promises to restrain land clearing, resulting in rapid and accelerating degradation of wildlife habitat and water catchments."

The most recent State of the Environment report found that there had been no net loss of "woody cover" across NSW between 2003 and 2008.

"This is because, although clearing has occurred over that period, there has also been an equivalent amount of regrowth including government sponsored environmental and forestry planting programs conducted by private landholders and state forests, within crown forests areas," the department said.

"Notwithstanding no net loss over the whole state, some regions have experienced net declines in woody cover."

The report uses the international definition of "woody cover", which includes land at least 20 per cent covered by the crowns of trees higher than 2 metres, a description which would include relatively open country.

The introduction of a satellite monitoring system for land clearing last year appears to have increased the level of prosecution for illegal land clearing on private property. On crown lands, the number of prosecutions has increased threefold, from a low base, since 2007.

In 2010, the government received 471 reports of suspected illegal land clearing.

MEDIA RELEASE Rainforest case - logging ban extended to January 2012

2011-12-20T14:47:00.000+11:00

Jill Redwood, Environment East Gippsland

The East Gippsland rainforest case will be adjourned today, with the temporary halt to logging extended until late January.

"This is a good outcome", said Jill Redwood from Environment East Gippsland. "Our lawyers have filed some very impressive court documents to show that the forests are within the boundaries of a National Rainforest Site of Significance."

"We look foreword to going to court in January, to seek permanent protection for the forests."

"It is just incredible that in this day and age, that a small local environment group has to take on a government agency to prevent the illegal logging of a National Rainforest Site of Significance. Most of the developed world knows the value of forests and rainforest, but the Baillieu government doesn't."

For comment: Jill Redwood - 03 5154 0145

Parker moves to amend NSW logging laws

2011-12-17T00:35:00.000+11:00

NSW political reporter Mark Tobin
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Updated December 17, 2011

New South Wales Environment Minister Robyn Parker is moving to amend laws which will allow Forests NSW to harm the endangered population of the yellow-bellied glider on the state's far south.

The documents show Ms Parker is planning changes to the Threatened Species Conservation Act which "authorises harm to the endangered population of the yellow-bellied glider of the Bago Plateau".

Opposition environment spokesman Luke Foley says it is disgraceful.

"Robyn Parker said logging protects koalas, she is now moving to allow logging of habitat of endangered yellow-bellied glider," Mr Foley said.

"The yellow-bellied glider is facing the very real risk of extinction and the NSW Environment Minister is doing everything she can to wipe out this endangered Australian marsupial."

In 2008 the NSW Scientific Committee warned the yellow-bellied glider is "facing a very high risk of extinction…in the near future".

Ms Parker has dismissed the concerns.

"An amendment has been made to reflect updated information about the habitat preferences of the yellow-bellied glider," she said in a statement.

“This amendment restricts Forests NSW logging to areas of low quality yellow-bellied glider habitat on the Bago Plateau.

"Logging in areas of medium and high quality habitat is prohibited until a scientifically rigorous population management plan has been signed off by the EPA.”

MEDIA RELEASE: SEFE Pellet factory invalid

2011-12-16T11:02:00.001+11:00

South East Forest Rescue, 16/12/2011

In an unprecedented court case South East Forest Rescue took an action against South East Fibre Exports (SEFE) and Bega Valley Shire Council in the NSW Land and Environment Court two weeks ago for building a factory that makes wood pellets from native forest trees. SEFE is a joint venture between Nippon Paper Industries Co Ltd and Itochu Corporation. SEFE operates the woodchip mill near Eden and is a major exporter of woodchips which come from forests from Nowra out to Tumut down to East Gippsland in Victoria. Wood pellets are commonly used to fuel wood-fired power plants.

Bega Valley Shire Council granted the development consent in June, despite much opposition from the community, despite the factory being much bigger than the application originally stated and despite being advised by SEFR that if the council consented they would be in breach of the law. SEFR also advised SEFE on the day of consent not to begin building the pellet factory as SEFR would be taking legal action.

The court case began on 2 September. The decision handed down on Friday stated that the pellet factory, which has already been built despite being warned not to proceed, has been invalidated.

It was found that Council did not consider the public submissions, the principles of ecologically sustainable development and the zoning of the land. The Court’s decision reveals an arrogant approach by BVSC which has now been revealed as unlawful. This means that South East Fibre Exports must not operate the factory or process wood for it. Any action SEFE take from here will be deemed unlawful.

“This case is important in that it is the first time in thirteen years that the public has been able to bring an action in a NSW court against the woodchipping industry,” said Ms Lisa Stone, spokesperson of South East Forest Rescue. “It’s an amazing win and a great decision.”

The public are tired of the woodchipping industry being a law unto themselves. Further the local government and the State government have been co-opted into this corruption of due process. This case shows that any decision maker must take the public wishes and the principles of ESD into account.

Burning native forests for electricity or using them for wood pellets is one of the greatest threats to the forests of the world. The Commonwealth government has announced that forestry will have to start accounting for its greenhouse gas emissions but that wont happen until at least 2015.

“The time for waiting is over, the time has come to follow New Zealand’s lead, honour Australia’s international obligations and end native forest logging altogether,” said Ms Stone. “The protection of our native forests is of urgent national and international importance in these times of global climate crisis. It’s time to prove that political will is not extinct and put an end to native forest logging, for us and our children's future.”

For more information contact Lisa Stone on 0428 640 271

Logging stoush heads to court

2011-12-15T13:40:00.000+11:00

Adam Morton

The Age, December 15, 2011

VicForests have been accused of logging a protected site of significance for rainforests. Photo: Rob Homer

VICTORIA'S newly empowered state-owned timber agency is facing a legal writ over claims it is illegally logging protected stands of rainforest in the state's far east.

Conservation group Environment East Gippsland has filed a writ in the Supreme Court accusing VicForests of logging a protected site of significance for rainforests. VicForests is contesting the claim, and has given the court an undertaking it will not log the disputed area before a hearing on Tuesday.

The writ comes a day after the Baillieu government released a plan that significantly expanded VicForests' authority.

In a short hearing yesterday, Environment East Gippsland submitted government maps showing the area was protected as a site of national importance.

VicForests told the court it accepted that the maps were from a government website, but said they were out of date. It said a review of the boundaries had moved the border of the protected area. The Department of Sustainability and Environment backed VicForests' statement. ''The northern boundary of the site has not been updated in the biodiversity interactive maps available on the [department] website. This is being corrected,'' spokeswoman Brigid Ennis said.

Environment East Gippsland secretary Liz Ingham said the explanation was ''suspiciously convenient''.

A spokeswoman for Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh said the court would determine whether the action against VicForests was warranted. ''It is unfortunate that in the court of public opinion VicForests is rarely granted the presumption of innocence,'' spokeswoman Stephanie Ryan said.

The latest court challenge to the timber industry follows days of protests holding up workers in the disputed area. Environment East Gippsland last year won an indefinite injunction over logging about 100 hectares of native forest at Brown Mountain, near Orbost, after its campaigners showed that it was home to endangered species.

Mr Walsh this week released a timber industry plan designed to guarantee a long-term future for the native forest industry, including boosting the length of timber contracts from five to 20 years. VicForests was given sole responsibility for calculating how much timber can be sustainably harvested. It will be monitored and audited by the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

LETTER: Reality bites - dirty power plants and more logging

2011-12-15T13:17:00.000+11:00

Nick Jans, Marysville
The Age, Letter, 15/12/2011

JUST as we were deriving some meagre encouragement from the Durban talks, along come our governments to bring us back to reality (''Dirty power plant rules abandoned'' and ''Timber gets long-term commitment'', The Age, 14/12).

LETTER: A confidence boost

2011-12-15T13:16:00.002+11:00

Gary Demby, Toolangi
The Age, Letter, 15/12/2011

PROVIDING longer-term contracts to customers of VicForests will surely help build business confidence in much of Victoria. For decades state governments have reduced the amount of forest available to the industry. Sometimes this was for ecological reasons based on good science. Sometimes it was for political reasons. This plan, from what I can tell, will not increase the amount of forest available to the industry. What it will do is provide a clear and effective regulatory framework for forest management and wood supply. We also have to recognise that the forest and wood products industry is largely a manufacturing industry, exposed to the high Australian dollar and cheap imports. As the seventh most forested nation in the world, it is a joke we have a $1.9 billion trade deficit in wood and paper products. Hopefully this policy helps fix this.

JUST as we were deriving some meagre encouragement from the Durban talks, along come our governments to bring us back to reality (''Dirty power plant rules abandoned'' and ''Timber gets long-term commitment'', The Age, 14/12).
Nick Jans, Marysville

LETTER: Path of destruction

2011-12-15T13:16:00.000+11:00

Kath Angus, East Brunswick
The Age, Letter, 15/12/2011

BRAVO, Baillieu. You have surpassed even my wildest expectations with your disregard for our ecosystems and the species endemic to them with your new forestry plan. Not only does it prove your unwavering dedication to the destruction of Victoria's native forests, it shows you have no desire to move towards a sustainable future. Not even Victoria's faunal emblem will have a place in Victoria. I will, however, compliment you on coming through with your transparency. With VicForests taking ''sole responsibility for calculating the amount of timber that can be sustainably harvested'', corporate control of our government could not be clearer.

LETTER: Propping up jobs

2011-12-15T13:15:00.001+11:00

Dean Wotherspoon, Northcote
The Age, Letter, 15/12/2011

THE latest timber industry plan basically turns the native timber industry into an expensive social security system to help prop up jobs in a handful of National Party seats. It appears that the limited environmental controls over logging and protection of biodiversity are to be wound back, and that Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh is even considering allowing some types of logging (thinning operations) into national parks. Given the non-compliance with environmental regulations these thinning operations have recorded in recent years, it is unbelievable that any competent minister would extend such operations in national parks. This policy is further evidence of the government's anti-environment stance.

LETTER: Environmental policy a betrayal of Liberal legacy

2011-12-15T13:15:00.000+11:00

Damian Magner, Montmorency
The Age, Letter, 15/12/2011

SAFEGUARDS for the protection of Victoria's natural environment have been in decline since the Baillieu government was elected and now the destruction is set to get worse (''Timber gets long-term commitment'', The Age, 14/12). It is clear the National Party is driving environmental policy in this government. Poor old Environment Minister Ryan Smith has been put in a box while the National Party runs riot. Some of the best conservation gains in Victoria were as a result of the vision and leadership of the Hamer Liberal government in the 1970s. Ted Baillieu is trashing his mentor's legacy because he is dependent on the National Party to hold government.

LETTER: Government should get out of logging business

2011-12-14T17:46:00.000+11:00

Peter Campbell
Letter to the editor (not yet published), 14 December 2011

Local conservationists have yet again had to take court action and use blockades to stop VicForests, the Victorian Government's logging business, from logging protected rainforest in East Gippsland.

VicForests have form. They were found guilty of breaking the law relating the protection of endangered species in Brown Mountain's forest in the Supreme Court in August 2010. Over a year later, despite a court order, they are yet to pay the court costs awarded against them to Environment East Gippsland.

In July this year, VicForests started logging forest near Sylvia Creek that is home to Leadbeaters Possum. They were stopped by another court order following legal action initiated by local environment group MyEnvironment. This court case, scheduled to be heard early next year, is again about VicForests ignoring the laws concerned with protecting endangered species.

The Baillieu government's response to VicForest's illegal and unethical practices is to reward them with 20 year contracts for logging our remaining native forests, indemnify their contracts, allow them to determine the amount of forest they can log and allow them to log forests in reserves, parks and water catchments.

The Baillieu government has also flagged changing the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act so that a bureaucrat can exempt VicForests from complying with it, thereby allowing them to log forests that are and should be protected.

The native forest logging industry is in terminal decline. Regional Forests Agreements have failed. The global market for woodchips, the major "product" that comes from out native forests, has collapsed. Despite accelerating logging, jobs continue to decline. The industry is largely automated now.

The wholesale conversion of native forests into plantations by continued logging and burning is simply not sustainable, as scientists such as Professor David Lindenmeyer have stated.

There is enough plantation resource available in Victoria right now to supply our timber and pulp needs. The Victorian government should get out of the logging business, get rid of VicForests, and support our sustainable plantation-based timber and wood products industries.

Our native forests should be protected for the carbon they store, their biodiversity, their function as water catchments and because they are wonderful places to visit.

Un-sustainability confirmed at last

2011-12-14T17:21:00.000+11:00

Sarah Rees, Director, MyEnvironment Inc.
Letter to the editor (not yet published), 15/12/2011

The sustainability report has finally been done on VicForests operations in Minister Peter Walsh's timber 'ACTION' plan. The whole lot is unsustainable - if it was 'sustainable' then we wouldn't need to log parks, reserves and special protection zones.

Every logging operation is now in breach of our international treaty with the UN Convention on Biodiversity, the Montreal process and Heads of Commonwealth Agreement. Thank you Minister, we have been waiting for this finding! Now we have proof directly from those in charge.

MEDIA RELEASE: Supreme Court orders stop to logging East Gippsland rainforest

2011-12-14T17:10:00.000+11:00

Environment East Gippsland presented the Court with official Victorian Government maps to show that the disputed area is a protected National Rainforest Site of Significance. VicForests submitted that the maps were wrong, and that the government department was scrambling to move the boundaries on the official maps before Court resumes next Tuesday 20 December 2011.

"It's a huge win for the forests today", said EEG secretary Liz Ingham who attended the court. "The Court stopped the logging in the nick of time, to prevent a rainforest reserve being logged."

"VicForests blamed the government, saying the rainforest reserve maps were wrong. This is a suspiciously convenient excuse", she said.

"For a very long time, the government has presented the public with rainforest reserve maps. They didn't alter the reserve boundaries when VicForests moved in to log the reserve. They only decided to move the reserve boundaries after our non-profit community environment group took VicForests to court. How convenient. VicForests is a state-owned enterprise with Premier's brother in law on the Board."

"Up here on the ground, those blockading this area hung on for their lives in the forest waiting for the result. They are absolute forest heroes", said Ms Redwood.

The case returns to Court on Tuesday 20 December at 10.30am, at which time the Court will address a further halt to logging.

For comment: Jill Redwood - 5154 0145 / Liz Ingham 0409 333 595

Timber gets long-term commitment

2011-12-14T12:01:00.000+11:00

Adam Morton and Tom Arup
The Age, December 14, 2011

THE government has moved to guarantee the long-term future of Victoria's timber industry, ending decades of protection of native forests from logging.

A new timber industry plan substantially boosts the power of VicForests, the government-owned commercial timber agency that the previous Labor government planned to abolish.

VicForests will take over sole responsibility for calculating the amount of timber that can be sustainably harvested, and will determine when and where logging takes place.

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Forestry companies will be offered native timber contracts lasting 20 years, up from the current maximum of five - a step to encourage investment in new mills and equipment.

The government will also indemnify VicForests against the cost if a contract is broken due to changes in policy, potentially leaving the state with the legal bill should a future government want to reduce native timber logging.

Other proposed changes include allowing ''ecological thinning'' of forests in reserves, parks and water catchments, and a review of timber legislation.

Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh said there were no plans for the amount of native forest harvested to increase, and that ecological thinning would be restricted to existing logging areas. He said Victoria's native forest timber was a ''magnificent and renewable resource'' with the potential to support a vibrant long-term industry.

''There is absolutely nothing sinister in this,'' he said. ''It is about, in the areas that were going to be logged, giving certainty to the industry and making sure forests are managed appropriately.''

The plan fulfils a Coalition election commitment. It comes two months after the release of proposed regulation changes that would give the head of the Department of Sustainability and Environment the power to grant loggers an exemption from endangered species laws.

Mr Walsh said yesterday that it was no secret VicForests had problems in the past, but it had undergone substantial change.

He said the Department of Sustainability and Environment would continue to watch VicForests' work.

Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Lindsay Hesketh said there was a conflict between giving VicForests greater power and protecting the environment. ''It appears this is the same thing that happened with Forestry Tasmania and led to the disaster Tasmania has become,'' he said.

Wilderness Society campaigner Luke Chamberlain said the plan to lock in compensation payments if a future government changed policy was ''agricultural socialism from the Soviet era''.

Opposition agriculture spokesman John Lenders said the plan failed to balance the need to protect the environment and secure jobs.

AM - Victorian government unveils new timber industry plan

2011-12-14T10:56:00.000+11:00

AM, TONY EASTLEY
ABC Radio, 14/12/2011

TONY EASTLEY: A leading ecologist has described the Victorian Government's new plan for the timber industry as 'medieval'. And conservationists say it opens a way for logging in national parks.

However, the plan to open up parks and reserves to logging and extend the length of logging contracts has delighted the timber industry, which says it brings much needed security and certainty.

Simon Lauder reports.

SIMON LAUDER: Australian National University ecologist David Lindenmayer has spent 28 years studying Victorian forests.

Professor Lindenmayer says they've been over exploited for decades and the Victorian Government's new Timber Industry Action Plan could be their death knell.

DAVID LINDENMAYER: We're going to see the extinction of Leadbetter's Possum probably within 30 years. We're going to see forests made more fire prone. We're going to see major complications with Melbourne's water supply.

SIMON LAUDER: At the moment the state government's forestry arm, VicForests, can only give companies access to timber for five years.

Victoria's agriculture minister, Peter Walsh, says that doesn't give the timber industry enough certainty to invest in the future and the government plans to extend native timber contracts to 20 years.

PETER WALSH: We do have a sustainable timber industry here in Victoria. It creates significant employment, particularly in country Victoria. And we are, as a government, are committed to that being a well managed and sustainable industry into the future.

SIMON LAUDER: VicForests and the Victorian Association of Forest Industries say the government's plan helps secure the long-term future of the industry.

The government says it will consider compensating the industry if contracts can't be fulfilled in the future.

Forests campaigner with the Wilderness Society, Luke Chamberlain, says that has implications for taxpayers.

LUKE CHAMBERLAIN: In five years time when they realise, 'Oh, there's no wood there' because it's burnt or it's been logged before, the public is going to have to bail them out, and that is part of this package. And it makes absolutely no sense if this government thinks they are good economic managers.

SIMON LAUDER: The State government's plan includes ecological thinning in reserves, parks and water catchments.

Mr Chamberlain says that opens the door to logging in state parks, protection zones and even national parks.

LUKE CHAMBERLAIN: That more of our forests are going to be opened up to be logged is... (laughs) is just of great concern to us and great concern to Victorians.

SIMON LAUDER: The Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh says the state government won't allow logging in national parks.

PETER WALSH: This is about those areas that have already been set aside for timber production into the future being managed better so you increase the value of timber that is being produced.

SIMON LAUDER: What are the "parks" that are referred to in the plan?

PETER WALSH: Well, it is not national parks.

SIMON LAUDER: What is it then?

PETER WALSH: Well, it is those areas that have already been set aside in the public estate for timber harvesting into the future.

SIMON LAUDER: Could it mean national parks in the future?

PETER WALSH: It does not mean national parks. And those people who are trying to imply that it does are just making mischief.

TONY EASTLEY: Victoria's Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh speaking to AM's Simon Lauder.

MEDIA RELEASE Legal injunction to stop Victorian rainforest logging

2011-12-14T09:00:00.000+11:00

Environment East Gippland
Wednesday 14th December 2011

VicForests is again being sued in the Supreme Court over what an environment group believes is illegal logging of a very significant protected rainforest area. Environment East Gippsland, which successfully sued VicForests last year, is lodging papers for an urgent injunction this morning in the Melbourne Supreme Court to stop the logging.

“This is the third case of what we believe is illegal logging that VicForests will have to answer for”, said Jill Redwood, coordinator of the group. “The public thinks this type of lawless destruction of protected primary forest and rainforest only occurs overseas”.

“VicForests is still refusing to pay our legal costs of around a million dollars from last year, despite this being a clear court order. If they think this is preventing us taking further legal action, it’s not working. The public is so outraged about their criminal destruction, they have already donated enough for us to get this next legal action rolling.”

“In a proper democracy it should not be up to the public to enforce the law over an uncontrollable government entity. We should not be forced to ask the courts to ensure VicForests abides by the law. We are a developed country. We give millions to other countries to help them stop illegal logging of their rainforests. But in Victoria we are seeing the same happen with full support of the Baillieu government. Exploiting industries seem to be writing the government’s laws and policies now”.

This stand of forest was blockaded for 5 days last week and was broken up by police on Monday.
“It doesn’t take long for a determined crew of logging contractors to cut down the tall trees and smash down a forest of tree ferns”, said Jill Redwood “We hope this injunction will be successful”.

For comment - Jill Redwood: 5154 0145, Liz Ingham (in court for EEG): 0409 333 595

MEDIA RELEASE: Police move in to evict protest at unlawful logging coupe

2011-12-12T23:49:00.000+11:00

Monday 12 December 2011

Police this morning moved in to evict conservationists who have been halting the unlawful logging of a Rainforest Site of Significance at Errinundra Road in East Gippsland for the last five days.

"This logging operation is in violation of state laws to protect all National Rainforest Sites of Significance. Despite this, and correspondence from lawyers requesting they withdraw from the site, Vicforests have
instead elected for police to begin dismantling the protest this morning," said spokesperson, Lauren Caulfield.

Police have now arrived on site with staff from Vicforests and the Department of Sustainability and Environment. A dozen conservationists remain in the area, with two tree platforms cabled 25 metres above
four machines. Arrests are expected.

"This unlawful logging operation, and the eviction of members of the public who are attempting to halt it, is happening under the watch of the Baillieu Government. We are calling on them to reign in logging agency Vicforests, and to force them to abide by the law," said David Caldwell, at Errinundra Road.

Local community group Environment East Gippsland is now preparing for an urgent legal injunction should logging operations proceed.

This logging coupe falls within the National Site of Significance for Rainforest along the Errinundra Road. In November 2006, the Victorian Government announced that certain areas of old growth forest in East
Gippsland would be permanently excluded from logging. This included all Sites of National Significance for Rainforest.

For further information: Lauren Caulfield 0408 748 939

MEDIA RELEASE: Conservationists Halt Logging Across Victoria

2011-12-05T11:24:00.001+11:00

GECO and Central Highlands Action Group, 5 December 2011

Conservationists are taking action across Victoria today to expose and hold accountable the Baillieu government and Vicforests for the ongoing destruction of threatened species habitats.

Conservationists in East Gippsland and in the Central highlands have halted logging operations this morning.

In Toolangi, Central highlands, the group has seized four logging machines which are attached to a tree sit, 50 metres up in the tree canopy. In East Gipplsand local community members are occupying a logging coupe in their water catchment, near Bonang, in known Long Footed Potoroo Habitat.

“Vicforests is responsible for logging in areas where endangered species have been recorded. The East Gippsland Long Footed Potoroo and the Central highlands Leadbeaters possum are in major decline. These areas are the last strong holds for those species and must be protected immediately,” said spokesperson for East Gippsland, David Caldwell.

“VicForests continue to force the Leadbeaters possum, towards the edge of extinction. This is one of Victorias most threatened species who’s very existence depends on these Mountain Ash forests of the Central Highlands.” Luke Pavia, spokes person for Central Highlands.

“The Ballieu Government has proposed to exempt such logging operations from adhering to the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act . This will weaken the already inadequate protection laws that are supposed to ensure survival of our most vulnerable species.” David Caldwell.

There is general disappointment within the wider community about unnecessary secrecy surrounding the protection of threatened species in Victorian State Forest. Vicforests refuse to make public, the results of their pre-logging, flora and fauna surveys, and have not been able to prove that adequate habitat exists in surrounding areas. They are obliged under the FFGA to do so. If these measures have not been complied with then logging operations being conducted are in breach of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act and are thus unlawful.

Conservationists in the coupes want to be assured that these measures have been complied with before any logging proceeds.

Litany of unlawful rainforest breaches: VicForests’ logging operations must be halted

2011-11-30T15:54:00.000+11:00

Media Release, Wednesday November 30, 2011

Yet more unlawful rainforest logging breaches in forest in East Gippsland have been surveyed and reported by independent conservationists.

“The latest survey results clearly show VicForests continues to violate regulations meant to protect Victoria’s rainforests”, said spokesperson for the group, Amelia Young.

“It is unlawful to log rainforest in Victoria, yet this week numerous instances of rainforest logging have again been reported to the authorities.”

A fortnight ago conservationists reported rainforest had been logged along Survey Road. The Department of Sustainability and Environment undertook to investigate the claims. Conservationists are now awaiting public release of their findings.

“While investigations into rainforest logging breaches are being carried out, VicForests’ logging operations should be halted; this data clearly shows that logging coupes are not being marked out lawfully and as a result we are losing magnificent rainforest to the woodchipper.”

This week conservationists lodged three more reports with the Department of Sustainability and Environment, detailing logging of ecological rainforest buffers north of Orbost.

Breaches reported this week include logging of Warm Temperate Rainforest along Old Bonang Hwy in the Curlip forest block. Rainforest species including Jungle Grape and Lilly Pilly and the bird Bassian Thrush were recorded at that site.

“Mount Buck Rainforest Site of State Significance along Major Creek has also been logged. Rainforest Sites of Significance are listed because they have outstanding values. Once logged, they are lost forever.”

Further west, along Cherry Tree Track, yet more logging of rainforest has been detected, clearly inside the 40 metre buffer required to protect rainforest in Victoria from logging operations.

“We need to ensure VicForests’ practice of shamelessly logging rainforest is stopped”, concluded Ms Young. “Why are VicForests still being given access to our forest estate when it’s been shown that they are repeatedly logging rainforests? This situation is unacceptable.”

For further information Amelia Young 0404 074 577

DSE to probe rainforest logging claims

2011-11-23T15:55:00.000+11:00

Gus Goswell
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), November 23, 2011

Anti-logging protesters have succeeded in stopping logging in a remote part of far East Gippsland.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) has agreed to investigate the protesters' claim that rainforest is threatened by logging on the Errinundra Plateau, north of Orbost.

It is illegal to log rainforest in Victoria.

Protesters have been disrupting operations in the forest coupe over the past fortnight.

Police went to the remote site yesterday to dismantle a tree platform built by the campaigners.

Officers had travelled to to the same coupe last week to demolish another tree platform.

The protesters have also been cabling logging machinery together.

The State Government owned timber company VicForests says four days of logging operations have had to be abandoned over the past fortnight because of the protests.

VicForests says no logging will take place in the contested section of the forest coupe while the DSE investigates the protesters' claims.

Continued Unlawful Logging of Rainforest shows native forest logging industry still not policed, as promised

2011-11-22T10:24:00.000+11:00

Amelia Young
Media Release, Tuesday 22 November, 2011

For the second day this week, and for the second week in a row, controversial logging operations on Survey Road in far East Gippsland have been stopped by conservationists on site.

Five logging machines have again been cabled off to a tree-sit occupied by protestors and suspended forty metres in the canopy in the logging coupe situated on the edge of the Errinundra National Park.

Last Thursday conservationists handed survey findings showing that rainforest had been logged within the coupe to the relevant authority, the Department of Sustainability and Environment, requesting that the logging be immediately stopped and that a proper investigation be undertaken.

Logging of rainforest is unlawful in Victoria, under both the Code of Forest Practice and the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

Yesterday conservationists resumed protest activity at the site as VicForests’ contentious logging operations in the coupe have not yet been halted by either the responsible Minister, nor by the relevant authority.

“Before last year’s state election, the current Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh stated that under a Coalition government, the native forest logging industry would be properly policed”, said spokesperson for the conservationists, Amelia Young.

“That in 2011, and under his watch, rainforest is still being logged in Victoria is a disgrace.”

Logging within or adjacent to rainforest causes changes to the rainforest microclimate, making it drier. Indeed, the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act Action Statement notes that cool temperate rainforest is ‘in a demonstrable state of decline likely to result in extinction.’

“This isn’t the first time VicForests’ logging contractors have been caught logging rainforest in East Gippsland”, said Ms Young. “In 2009 rainforest was positively identified in a coupe adjacent to this one, along the same gully system. In that instance, the Department confirmed the facts, concluding that logging activities had caused major environmental impact.

“These repeated rainforest logging infractions make mockery of claims that logging in Victoria is lawful and is among world’s best practice”, concluded Ms Young.

For further comment: Amelia Young 0404 074 577

Links

DSE Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act Action Statement No. 238 (PDF)

Rainforest logging breach: Protestors on site at Survey Road

2011-11-21T14:36:00.000+11:00

Amelia Young
Media Release, Monday 21 November, 2011

This morning conservationists have again halted logging in rainforest on Survey Road in far East Gippsland. Five logging machines have been cabled off to a treesit in the forest canopy.

"As if it wasn't enough that VicForests had sent their logging contractors into a coupe containing precious old-growth forest; conservationists have now verified that rainforest has been logged on site as well", said spokesperson Amelia Young.

Logging of rainforest in Victoria is in breach of regulations governing logging operations, including the Code of Forest Practice and the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

"State government regulation requires that stands of rainforest be protected from some of the impacts of logging by a buffer of at least forty metres. On site in this logging coupe on Survey Road there are various locations where logging has occurred within what should be a forty metre buffer.

The conservationists allegations have been presented to the relevant authority.

"We would like the Department of Sustainability and Environment to properly investigate these issues, immediately halt logging operations and ensure adequate rainforest buffers are implemented and adhered to."

Rainforests are an especially vulnerable ecological community and are listed as threatened under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

"Increased exposure to light and wind causes major drying out of this sensitive ecological community that, due to decades of logging and land clearing, is already reduced to covering less than one per cent of the state. This isn't the first time VicForestsf logging contractors have been caught logging rainforest in East Gippsland", said Ms Young.

"In 2009 rainforest was positively identified in a coupe adjacent to this one, along the same gully system. In that instance, the Department confirmed the facts, concluding that logging activities had caused major environmental impact. These repeated rainforest logging breaches make mockery of claims that logging in Victoria is lawful and is among world's best practice", concluded Ms Young.

For further comment: Amelia Young 0404 074 577

References

DSE Flora and Fauna Gaurantee Act Action Statement No. 238 (PDF)

Activists outraged at use of protected Tassie timber

2011-11-09T11:11:00.000+11:00

Conor Duffy
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), November 09, 2011

Environmental groups say the use of Tasmanian timber on a London Olympics building site is evidence the Federal Government's forest peace deal is failing.

Activist group Markets for Change tracked the wood to an Olympics training site to be used by Team USA.

Markets for Change spokeswoman Louise Morris says the timber is from highly valued conversation forests earmarked for protection under the inter-governmental forest peace deal.

"It really does shed some harsh light on the current IGA [intergovernmental agreement] process," she said.

Ta Ann Tasmania, the Malaysian-owned company that manufactured the veneer, says the London product was sold two years ago and came from regrowth forest.

The company's director David Ridley says he is thrilled the Tasmanian eucalypt is being used at such a high-profile event.

"I'm rapt that some of the world's best athletes can make use of a fantastic timber product," he said.

Forestry Tasmania says the amount of timber supplied from high conservation value forests is less than half a per cent of the 430,000 hectares locked up under the deal.

Log grade an issue

2011-11-08T09:22:00.000+11:00

Trevor Brown, Heyfield
The Age (letter), 8 November 2011

MANY letters (4/11) were published in response to the article ''New law in pipeline to aid loggers'', The Age, 3/11). No more forest will be available to the industry; changes to the code will only alter how the forest is managed.

Also, the industry cannot just transition to plantations and stop harvesting native forests. Appearance-grade sawlogs are not available in significant commercial quantities from plantations. Without access to these sawlogs, many businesses would close. Australians would either buy products made from other materials with higher carbon footprints, or import more timber from countries with weaker environmental regulations.

Premier backs new mill

2011-11-07T12:24:00.000+11:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), November 07, 2011

The Tasmanian Premier has confirmed she will back a new woodchip mill in the state's south.

Lara Giddings says her government will consider financially backing the construction of a new mill, if Triabunna does not open.

She did not rule out the possibility of exporting woodchips from Hobart's waterfront.

"I could not rule out that you'd never, ever, ever have a ship come to Hobart that didn't end up taking woodchips away."

But Ms Giddings wants Triabunna re-opened and has called on the managers and owners to advertise for tenders.

Manager Alec Marr says that can not happen because they can not secure a vital wharf lease from the state-owned Tasports.

The Premier says that is rubbish.

"What it shows to me is that they have no intention of opening this up."

The Government has also suggested the owners could sell back the mill to the industry.

Ms Giddings says Triabunna Investments should start advertising for tenders to operate the mill.

"We need an alternative export facility in the south of the state and if you can't have Triabunna Investments open their gates because they refuse to open their gates we have to look to alternatives."

"But the other solution, of course, is for Triabunna Investments to step out of this and perhaps look at selling back to industry," the Premier said.

At the weekend, Mr Marr asked the Premier to stop making public statements because it was undermining the process.

Greens Leader Nick McKim says the party would not support a single taxpayers dollar going into the construction of a new mill.

The forest industry has called for an end to the stalemate over mill's re-opening.

Barry Chipman from Timber Communities Australia says the stand-off is creating uncertainty in the industry.

"We really do need to get over this problem and again get Triabunna open again," he said.

"If that fails an export facility out of Hobart or again, let's turn that resource into bioenergy and use it locally in our local power grid."

Scars will tell the story

2011-11-04T23:05:00.002+11:00

Sue Roberts, Lower Plenty
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

THE scars will tell the story - of betrayal and loss, of creatures crunched by bulldozers and numbers in their last stand for survival.

Ted Baillieu's hit list

2011-11-04T23:04:00.001+11:00

Lynn Frankes, Kew
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

WHAT else that I hold dear is on Ted Baillieu's hit list? Wind farms, carbon targets and now diminished protection for endangered species and old-growth forests via a sneaky back door.

Back to their roots

2011-11-04T23:00:00.000+11:00

Samuel Moore, Hawthorn
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

THE Baillieu government is stuck in the old-school mode of thinking that says environmental preservation and economic growth are incompatible. Logging native forests has continually lost the state money, so all this proposal is doing is attempting to make VicForests a little less unprofitable than it already is. Relying entirely on plantations, as Gunns is now doing in Tasmania, is the economically rational thing to do and the environmentally obvious approach. If the Liberal government truly lived up to its economic ideology, and didn't let the Nationals run the show, it would stop subsidising an increasingly unprofitable, government-driven native forest industry, and let the competitive advantages of plantations be realised by private industry.

Morally challenged

2011-11-04T22:59:00.000+11:00

Andrew Parsons, Ringwood East
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

WHEN I was a kid facing defeat in a contest on home territory, it was considered unacceptable and morally wrong to simply change the rules to get your own way. Now we see the Baillieu government doing exactly that in response to the landmark ruling in 2010 when the Supreme Court banned VicForests from logging old-growth forests at Brown Mountain in East Gippsland. Environmental laws are designed to protect threatened species and it is not often nature scores a win. But now, by attempting to water down the law and prop up the destructive logging industry, the government is guilty of the unacceptable and immoral behaviour of changing the rules when the outcome is unpalatable. Shame.

A lawless act

2011-11-04T22:58:00.000+11:00

Michael Bond, Richmond
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

IT IS outrageous that the Baillieu government plans to protect the logging industry at the expense of endangered species. Old-growth forests are some of our best carbon sinks, and for the sake of a minority of dwindling logging jobs they will be lost forever, with the wildlife they contain. Massive subsidies keep this industry alive - money that could be better spent. This assault on native forests is environmental terrorism at its finest and appears to be a case of "if you can't beat the law, change it". An outrageous use of Parliament.

A loss now and for eternity

2011-11-04T22:57:00.000+11:00

Dave Archer, Frankston
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

IT IS with much sadness, and not a little anger, that I read of Ted Baillieu's proposal to sacrifice our endangered wildlife and magnificent old-growth forest for some woodchips that we can produce in plantations (''New law in pipeline to aid loggers'', The Age, 3/11). Does Mr Baillieu not care about his grandchildren? None of us will ever see a Tassie tiger again but the long-footed potoroo and other threatened species are still hanging on, just, for future generations to view in the wild and not stuffed in some glass display case, which is where the Premier is proposing to drive them. We need to give these endangered animals and irreplaceable forests a voice. Yes, we need wood products, but we don't need to source them from areas where endangered species live.

Let's not be the generation that oversaw the demise of so much more of our native wildlife, to temporarily sustain an industry in its death throes. These creatures need more protection. Please take a deep breath, Mr Baillieu, think again and do the right thing.

Unethical at best

2011-11-04T22:56:00.001+11:00

Sarah Rees, MyEnvironment, Healesville
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

THE Department of Sudden Extinctions (DSE) has been handed the pen of god to cull threatened species to continue woodchipping native forests. Why? After Black Saturday, the forests were stripped of their capacity to operate duly as a woodchip source and maintain catchment health, but don't let that get in the way of growth. Empowering the DSE to selectively cull threatened species is unethical at best. As for our state's faunal emblem, let's hope Melbourne Zoo can reserve a room for the last Leadbeater's possum - they don't take up much space.

New state law in the pipeline to aid loggers

2011-11-03T23:00:00.000+11:00

Tom Arup
The Age, November 3, 2011

LOGGERS can seek exemptions from state environment laws protecting endangered species under proposed changes quietly released by the state government.

The proposed amendments to the code for timber production - outlined in a document posted on a government website - hands power to the Secretary of the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

The secretary would be able to exempt a logging project from the requirements of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, which protects the state's endangered and threatened species.

The government has so far released nothing on the proposed changes, but a spokeswoman said last night that there would be sufficient time for public comments on the proposed changes, due February.

The proposed changes follow a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court last year banning VicForests from logging old-growth forest at Brown Mountain in East Gippsland, after an endangered long-footed potoroo was filmed in an area to be felled.

The change will mean proponents of a new logging coupe can make applications to the secretary for exemption.

The secretary will consider, among other things, the numbers required to maintain a viable population of a listed species in the area to be logged, and the amount of habitat near the proposed coupe already protected in national parks.

"Variations to the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2007 are proposed to improve the certainty of timber supply to Victoria's native forest timber industry," the document, dated October 26, states.

"The objective of the variations is to achieve a better balance between the protection of threatened species and sustainable timber production from public native forests."

Wilderness Society campaigner Luke Chamberlain said this was "a sneaky move" by the government to exempt logging from endangered species legislation, and would "betray Victoria's unique wildlife to the chainsaws".

"It puts us on a par with governance of logging practices in Indonesia," he said. "This is world's worst practice of lawless logging."

The Age first revealed in August potential changes to the way endangered species are looked after in Victoria.

At the time, the spokeswoman for Environment Minister Ryan Smith said the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act was currently not under review.

The government reserved the right to review legislation to ensure that it was current, and fit for the purpose, she said.

Yesterday, the spokeswoman said the changes were to the timber code, which fit under the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act, which was not a legislative instrument.

That was contradicted at the time by parliamentary secretary for forestry, Gary Blackwood, who said the government intended to "revisit or review" the way the law applied to the management of threatened species.

Timber code chance could result in more native forest logging in Victoria

2011-11-03T09:45:00.000+11:00

Kath Sullivan
ABC rural news, Thursday, 03/11/2011

The Victorian Government is proposing changes to Timber Production Code of Practice that could result in increased logging in native forests.

The changes give the final say on logging in protected areas to the secretary of the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Under the changes, the secretary could over-ride the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act protections and allow logging in previously protected areas.

Parliamentary secretary for Forestry, Gary Blackwood, says the changes would also lead to comprehensive studies of endangered species in native forests.

"It's about allowing us to use that 10 per cent of public native forest estate that we have available for timber production," he said.

"It's about allowing us to use that in a more common sense and practical manner and it's about perhaps providing the opportunity to take a bit of pressure off that production forest because of the threat of a threatened species being found in that area."

Green groups are opposing the changes, saying they'll be detrimental to the protection of endangered species.

More to logs than jobs

2011-09-28T20:34:00.000+10:00

Prue Acton
ABC Environment, 28 SEP 2011

Logging the forests of south east Australia releases three per cent of our carbon dioxide emissions, and destroys precious biodiversity. Yet this activity is subsidised by our governments.

FORTY YEARS AGO, the NSW Government agreed to supply 5,000 tons of waste from saw logs to the newly established export woodchip mill at Eden. A Japanese and an Australian company, Harris Daishowa, then jointly owned the mill.

By 2008, the Eden chip mill had become South East Fibre Exports and was wholly owned by Nippon Paper and Itochu, exporting around 200 times the original quantity, one million tonnes of woodchips.

Make no mistake, these days woodchips are not waste from saw logging, woodchips are the main game. From logging operations that are close to clear felling in many compartments, 80 per cent of all logs along the Far South Coast of NSW are woodchipped, and 90 per cent of logs taken from the Eden region.

Forty years of heavy industrial logging has taken its toll on the forests, their water catchments, their wildlife and soils. Threatened and endangered species numbers have dropped alarmingly. Even once common species like the koala are in danger of imminent regional extinction.

Logging has changed the character of the southeast forests - from wet to dry schlerophyll, with dangerously wildfire-prone regrowth. And climate change will exacerbate the dangers. Under the NSW Forestry Act, the State government is charged with protecting the character of forests. But in the face of plummeting yields it is condoning short logging rotations, even though we know that it takes 180 years to restore water and carbon levels and more than 400 years to restore forests to their former glory - if the complex interrelationships of species from higher order, koalas, greater gliders, powerful owls, down to soil microbes can ever be recovered.

In recent years consumer preferences for plantation chips and the global financial crisis have reduced demand for Australian native forest chips from the Japanese paper-makers by around 30 per cent.

This should be good news for our native forests. However the industry now seeks a new income stream supplying native forests for electricity generation, in Australia and abroad. South East Fibre Exports currently has an application before the NSW Government to build a wood-fired power station, and its wood pellet plant approved by local government is close to completion. Both projects will use mainly native forest inputs.

As part of its Clean Energy Futures package, the Commonwealth ruled out native forest biomass as a renewable energy fuel that was eligible to earn Renewable Energy Credits. However this welcome decision does not necessarily reduce the threat to our southeast forests.

The chipmill says it intends to go ahead with constructing the power plant once it is approved, regardless of losing the economic benefit of earning RECs.

Moreover there is nothing to stop the Eden chipmill exporting chips or pellets for electricity generation overseas.

The group to which I belong, South East Region Conservation Alliance represents around 12 groups and is affiliated with Environment East Gippsland. It is also a founding member of Australian Forests and Climate Alliance. SERCA led the way in alerting the public and campaigning against burning native forest wood for electricity. SERCA applauds the Federal Government for ruling out eligibility to earn RECs, the inclusion of native forests in the Carbon Farming Initiative and the Biodiversity Fund. However none of these initiatives will force the much needed restructuring of the industry in this region.

The Eden chipmill claims its exports are now back to pre-GFC levels. Currently Forests NSW is seeking to recruit more logging contractors on long term contracts, including from Victoria as numbers there are cut by 30 per cent; already we have seen a crew from Tasmania relocated in SE NSW, despite its having received a $830,000 payout for exiting the industry in Tasmania.

It looks as if both Forests NSW and the Eden chipmill intend to intensify their logging/ chipping/pelletising.

The forests of southeast Australia are now acknowledged to be the most carbon dense in the world. Their value as carbon and water stores is vastly greater than the value of the logs produced.

Who is winning here? Not the environment, and not the taxpayer. Last year NSW Forests lost $15 million from its native forest sector, and across the border Vic Forests made a small profit only because of a grant for its bushfire recovery services. Taxpayers are effectively subsidising the industry and workers' jobs.

The logging industry provides 214 direct jobs in SE NSW and 138 in East Gippsland, including logging crews, truck drivers and chip mill workers - a minute proportion of jobs in the southeast region.

Logging for the Eden chip mill alone produces the equivalent of around three per cent of Australia's annual greenhouse gas emissions - similar in extent to the emissions from the brown coal fired Hazelwood power station in Victoria, that the Commonwealth considers to be unacceptably high.

Natural forests are resilient, diverse - evolutionary masterpieces - it is time we changed from mining eco systems such as forests to valuing them in the 21st Century for climate, water, wildlife and beauty.

Prue Acton is an Australian fashion designer who has received an OBE for her work. She has a passion for the forests of south east NSW. To celebrate 2011 UN International Year of the Forests, SERCA has put together a travelling photographic exhibition: Natural Forests - Australia's wilderness coast. It opens in Cyclone Gallery, 399 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, 6-28 October before moving to Gallery Bodalla, NSW, 5 November to 5 December 2011.

Biomass misses boat

2011-09-28T14:00:00.000+10:00

Justin Tutty, Darwin, NT
The Age, 28 Sep 2011

TED Baillieu needn't trouble himself over possible conflicts of interest when considering Gary Squires's latest proposal for Victoria's native forests (''Tree lopper turns up as biomass spruiker'', BusinessDay, 27/9).
Biomass power generation is only viable within a national emissions trading regime, and it has become clear that native forest won't meet the criteria set out in the Clean Energy Future package now before Parliament.
Mr Squires has run his dash, and then some. The age of converting high-value habitat to high-volume commodity is over.

Kmart envelopes fail rainforest test

2011-09-26T22:54:00.001+10:00

Paddy Manning
The Age, September 26, 2011

LABORATORY testing of Kmart's Indonesian-made Office One home-brand envelopes shows they contain 19 per cent mixed tropical hardwood fibre sourced from rainforest.

The analysis, commissioned from an American lab by environment group Markets for Change, comes amid an increasingly bitter debate about Indonesian forest practices, which has seen Australian retailers, including IGA and Officeworks, stop supplies from manufacturers of paper products including giants Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd and Asia Pulp and Paper.

Kmart's Office One copy paper is made in China but its home-brand envelopes are made in Indonesia, although the manufacturer is not identified on the packaging.

A Kmart spokesperson yesterday was surprised at the findings and said the company would ''take the matter extremely seriously and begin an immediate investigation''. On Friday the secretary-general of Indonesia's Forestry Ministry, Hadi Daryanto, addressed a conference in Sydney organised to counter environmental campaigns against forest industries.

Toolangi forest logging halted until 2012

2011-09-19T22:45:00.000+10:00

Emily Webb
Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader, 19 September 2011

A HALT on logging in a Toolangi forest has been extended until February, 2012.

The Supreme Court today extended the injunction to stop logging in Sylvia Creek forest near Toolangi after VicForests agreed to the moratorium.

Healesville-based conservation group My Environment Inc has challenged the legality of VicForests logging operation on the grounds that the area is habitat for the endangered Leadbeater’s possum.

The full court hearing is now scheduled for February 6, 2012.

Like a voice in the wilderness

2011-09-17T16:12:00.000+10:00

ROSSLYN BEEBY
The Canberra Times, 17 Sep, 2011

'Life on earth is inconceivable without trees,'' the great Russian playwright Anton Chekov wrote in a letter to a friend in the late 1880s. ''Forests create climate, climate influences peoples' character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilisation nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe.''
And in the first act of Uncle Vanya, there's an environmental monologue, in which the country doctor Mikhail Astrov passionately rails against the destruction of Russia's forests for firewood.

''Why destroy the forests? The woods of Russia are trembling under the blows of the axe. Millions of trees have perished. The homes of the wild animals and birds have been desolated; the rivers are shrinking, and many beautiful landscapes are gone forever ... Who but a stupid barbarian could burn so much beauty in his stove?''

Only last month, the Sydney Theatre Company performed a revival of Uncle Vanya at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, with Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh in the lead roles, and Hugo Weaving playing Astrov. The New York Times gave it a glowing review, describing the production as ''deeply, outrageously funny [and] also heartbreaking enough to make you want to dive straight into a bottomless vodka bottle''.

What's also heartbreaking enough to warrant a plunge into a bottomless bottle of booze, is that Chekov wrote his ''save the forests'' monologue in 1897, maybe even earlier. More than century later - 114 years in fact - there is no equivalent eco-outburst in contemporary theatre. And in Australia, despite logging of old-growth forests being one of our most politically contentious issues, there are no Astrov inspired eco-monologues in any of our popular contemporary plays. Lots of social drama, but nothing to make a federal environment, or forestry minister squirm uncomfortably in their theatre seats. That's if they're inclined to go to the theatre.

Australia's forests have provoked more than their fair share of political drama, and protests over their destruction pre-dates demonstrations with people dressed in fluffy koala suits. It began in the very early days of colonial settlement. Australian National University cultural historian and environmental lawyer Tim Bonyhady traces this concern in The Colonial Earth, shattering the myth that ''the invaders wreaked havoc on their new environment both gratuitously and as an inevitable part of the process of settlement''. Bonyhady shows our earliest forestry conservation battles date, not from the Daintree blockade of the 1980s, but the 1790s, when colonial magistrate Richard Atkins suggested Australia's weather was changing ''in consequence of the country opening so fast'' by land clearing for pasture and settlements. By 1804, several environmental protection and planning laws were in place, including what was ''probably the world's first prohibition of cruelty to animals'' writes Bonyhady.

Australia's forests had their colonial champions, including the artist John Glover who described Tasmania's eucalypt forests as ''a painter's delight''. Within a month of becoming Governor of NSW in 1795, John Hunter banned the felling of native cedar trees on public land along the Hunter river.

''Australia perhaps more than anywhere else began with a form of colonialism alive to the importance of environmental protection and planning,'' writes Bonyhady.

''Some species of eucalypt also acquired global significance ... The Victorian mountain ash was acclaimed as a 'wonder of the world' after the government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller announced in 1866 that it was probably the tallest tree on earth, eclipsing the giant sequoias of California.''

Earlier this week, ANU forest ecologist Professor David Lindenmayer published a scientific paper that paints a shockingly bleak future of those old-growth mountain ash forests. Less than 1.1 per cent remain, destroyed by ''the interacting effects of wildfire [and] logging'' creating a previously undocumented ecological condition called ''a landscape trap''.

Lindenmayer describes it as ''a positive feedback loop'' between the frequency and severity of bushfires and the reduced age of trees in the mountain ash forests.

''These old growth forests are being wiped out, and up to 40 per cent of old trees are dying,'' he says.

''They're being replaced by young, fire-prone trees. that means a huge shift in the forest ecosystem. Young trees don't have nesting hollows, they don't have as extensive bark streamers which are essential foraging micro-habitats for wildlife ...

''We're seeing a whole lot of changes in vegetation structure that are likely to lead to irreversible losses of suitable habitat for around 40 species of animals that are dependent on big, old-growth trees with nesting hollows.''

Lindenmayer has called for an urgent review of all of Australia's joint federal and state regional forestry agreements in the light of these findings. But both federal Forestry Minister Senator Joe Ludwig and Environment Minister Tony Burke have defended the 20 year agreements between the Federal Government, NSW, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

''These agreements are already regularly reviewed,'' a spokeswoman for Ludwig said.

Burke said an assessment last year by the former Bureau of Resources Sciences found that 73 per cent of all old-growth forests in areas covered by the agreements were in protected areas.

''The effective management of these forests is important, so any published research that can support improved management is welcome,'' he said.

Lindenmayer co-authored his recent research paper with three of the world's most distinguished ecologists - Professor Gene Likens, Professor Richard Hobbs and Emeritus Professor Charles Krebs. Likens pioneered the study of acid rain and its impacts on ecosystems, and was awarded a a US National Medal of Science for science leadership. Krebs, from the University of British Columbia, is the author of several influential ecology textbooks (one standard work, widely used for ecology courses at universities throughout the world, is simply referred to as ''Krebs'') and an expert on cool climate forest ecosystems.

Hobbs, from the University of Western Australia, is an Australian Research Council Laureate, and of the world's top experts on restoration ecology.

In the world of environmental science, these are four names that resonate loudly, and the paper - Lindenmayer is the lead author - published this week in the United States in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is already creating more than a ripple of interest. But not, it seems, among Australia's politicians. Lindenmayer has not met Burke or Ludwig, and no one from the Federal Government has contacted him following news reports of his findings. And despite being one of Australia's most published and awarded scientists (more than 20 books, a Harvard University forest ecology fellowship) he has never been asked to brief a federal minister on forestry conservation or related biodiversity issues. He has also not been asked to brief the Coalition or the Greens.

''There is a general disrespect for science these days among politicians. The Government will pick up the phone to talk to lobbyists before they will - if ever - talk to a scientist,'' he says.

''As a result we have an atrocious forest management policy, and as a result if that we will see extinctions within 20 to 30 years.''

Lindenmayer says he's been told by federal contacts that Burke has ruled out any changes to the regional forestry agreements although, as Environment Minister, he has the capacity to request a review.

''I've been told the RFAs are right off the table,'' Lindenmayer says.

''That's crazy because we have had massive changes in recent years, not least the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria. We need to revisit those agreements, and do it immediately.''

The agreement for Victoria's southern highlands was drafted in 1997, and states in its biodiversity technical report that ''effects of timber harvesting and wildfire on water harvesting is not well understood'' and biodiversity data ''is incomplete''. It notes populations of 13 wildlife species - including Leadbeater's possum and squirrel gliders - have declined, and the status of a further 15 species ''is unknown''.

But a 2010 independent review of the agreement made no new recommendations regarding ecologically sustainable forest management, but did recommend giving ''priority to monitoring of sustainability indicators to enable comprehensive reporting in the next State of the Forests report due in 2013. The next five-year review of the agreement is due by June 2014.

Lindenmayer says this is ''way too late, and far too bureaucratic to be in any way meaningful''.

''How can you not review a forestry agreement after a massive loss of resources caused by one of Australia's worst bushfires? How can you not review the agreement when you discover you've already lost 99 per cent of old-growth mountain forests? It's insane.''

The Australian Forest Products Association has unexpectedly backed Lindenmayer's call for a review of the agreement. The association's policy manger Mick Stephens says there is a need for ''new discussions'', in order to give certainty - or adequate compensation, in some cases - to sectors of the forestry industry.

''We don't always agree with David Lindenmayer, but in this case, we would support him in calling for a review of the regional forest agreements. We have been advocating a review for some time, including comprehensive re-assessment of wood supplies,'' Stephens says.

''We also want to see monitoring and performance of all forest land tenures to ensure environmental and biodiversity management objectives are being met. That's a necessity.''

But Australian Greens forests spokeswoman Senator Lee Rhiannon wants the agreements scrapped. She said the Greens had already written to Ludwig ''pressing for a review of regional forest agreements and we will continue this call in the Senate''.

Rhiannon described Lindenmayer's research paper as painting ''a devastating picture of a landscape that is irreversibly changing from healthy old growth forests to young fire-prone forests without hollows and microclimates for habitat''. She has accused the Gillard Government of ''sleepwalking into an environmental disaster'', with a forests policy that is failing to protect biodiversity, water catchments and local communities.

Lindenmayer has thrown down a challenge for Burke to visit the old-growth mountain ash forests in Victoria's southern highlands. In recent weeks, he has taken some of the world's top forest ecologist on a tour of the research sites where he has worked for more than 20 years on one of Australia's longest-running environmental studies.

''They have been emotionally and physically sickened by what they saw,'' he says.

''These are some of the world's leading authorities - from Seattle, Japan, Vancouver - and they have all asked me how the hell something like this could happen. How could Australia allow this?''

He says University of Washington ecologist Professor Jerry Franklin - was ''rendered speechless by the scale of devastation'' and angrily demanded ''why science had failed these forests. Franklin, who has advised the White House on forest conservation, is also writing a paper on the devastation of Australia's old-growth mountain ash forests. So, memo to federal ministers, this is about to go global.

Lindenmayer says the ''landscape trap'' described in this week's scientific paper is ''historically unprecedented''. It is a landscape that is in ''start contrast'' to the mountain ash forest landscape recorded last century, both in historical accounts and photographs. He explains that data analysis in the two years following the February 2009 Black Saturday bushfires show ''young forest burns at higher severity than mature forest'' and is more fire prone. Therefore, it increases the risk of bushfire, and also ecological functions such as carbon storage, water production and wildlife habitat.

''The irony in all of this is that we're going to get a carbon tax, and yet the Government is not willing to do anything to protect one of the most important carbon storages in the world, that's worth tens of billions of dollars,'' he says.

''These old growth mountain ash forests are the world's most carbon-dense forest. There's a lot of talk about the need to stop logging tropical forests in developing countries, but why not have a forests policy that starts by recognising the carbon benefits to be gained from protecting our own native forests.''

Any chance of getting Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett, co-directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, to rework an Australian version of Uncle Vanya? David Lindenmayer could surely offer them a few ideas about an updating Astrov's forestry speech.

Rosslyn Beeby is Science and Environment reporter.

Tackle deforestation

2011-09-17T09:25:00.000+10:00

Doug Ralph, Castlemaine
The Age (letter), 17 September 2011

THE introduction of a carbon tax may help reduce emissions in the long term but the other important cause of global warming is being ignored. Deforestation through land clearing and loss of biodiversity are a major contributor to climate change.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature states that loss of biodiversity - the variety of animals, plants, their habitats and their genes - on which so much of human life depends is one of the world's most pressing crises.

It is estimated that the extinction rate of species is between 1000 and 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be. The main drivers are caused by converting natural areas to farming and urban development, introducing invasive alien species, polluting or over-exploiting resources such as water and soils, and harvesting wild plants and animals at unsustainable levels.

Many scientists agree that restoring natural ecosystems could cool the earth and offset our present carbon emissions in the short term. Let's get our priorities right.

Conservation, recreation and carbon values of the Australian natural forest resource are worth more than its log value

2011-09-16T00:32:00.000+10:00

"I will go out on a limb here and suggest that the conservation, recreation and carbon values of the Australian natural forest resource are worth more than its log value on net present value terms. Sustainable forest management projects should be evaluated with full incorporation of the resultant loss of non wood values; the formula should not be based merely on a technical estimate of maintaining log volume increment over the stand".

Australian Jim Douglas, who has spent the last eight years as the World Bank's Forests Adviser in Washington, writing a guest editorial in the latest "Australian Forestry" magazine.

Species at risk 'need old growth forests'

2011-09-15T21:26:00.001+10:00

Anna Salleh
ABC, Thursday, 15 September 2011

When it comes to protecting tropical species that are at risk from extinction there's no substitute for old growth forests, a new study has found.

The findings fly in the face of suggestions that loss of biodiversity can be tamed by the regrowth of forests in tropical areas.

Ecologist Professor William Laurance, of James Cook University in Cairns, and colleagues report their findings today in the journal Nature.

"This notion that we don't have to worry about the future of biodiversity in the tropics because there is forest regenerating in some areas is a very misleading argument," says Laurance.

"Most forms of forest degradation have an overwhelmingly detrimental effect on tropical biodiversity."

Old growth forests are those that have been undisturbed for centuries and contain enormous trees that in some cases are 1000 years old.

Laurance says about half of the world's old growth forest has been completely cleared, and much of the remaining forest is damaged.

"What we're witnessing in our lifetimes is a really massive transformation of the tropics," he says.

"An important question has been what the impacts are going to be on biodiversity."

Comparing habitats
Laurance and colleagues analysed 138 published studies that compared the abundance of species in old growth forests with that in other habitats, including areas given over to agriculture, regenerating forests, and selectively logged forests.

"When you compare these different types of habitat you find that the old growth forests are definitely the most important for sustaining biodiversity," says Laurance.

He says the findings feed into a recent debate about the importance of disturbed tropical forests in sustaining biodiversity.

Some biologists argue regenerating forests can sustain biodiversity. While this is true, says Laurance, they are no substitute for old growth forests.

He says old growth forests have 10 to 30 times more species of trees than other forests and have specialised habitats such as hollow trees.

Laurance and colleagues found that when it came to the species that are at greatest risk of extinction, old growth forests were the most important habitats.

"You tend to find the extinction-prone species almost exclusively in old growth rainforest," he says.

Laurance says a forest would need to be left undisturbed for around 300 years to qualify as old growth.

He says in the Brazilian Amazon, where an area the size of France has been cleared, a third of that is regrowth forest that is on average just six to seven years old.

Second best option
Laurance emphasises that while old growth forest is the most important habitat for at risk species, selectively logged forest may provide a second-best option.

In fact, Laurance and team found the least dramatic difference in species abundance between old growth and selectively logged forests, where only certain trees are cut out but much of the original habitat remains.

"That's important because it shows selectively logged forests should also be preserved as important habitat," says Laurance.

He says that Indonesia has 30,000 million hectares of selectively logged forests and most has been designated to be cleared on the basis it doesn't have any conservation value.

But, says Laurance, most of these forests are in areas where old growth has been completely removed and they represent the best hope for preserving biodiversity.

"To just write that stuff as being valueless is very bad policy."

No substitute for natural forests: study

2011-09-15T21:10:00.000+10:00

AAP
Sydney Morning Herald, September 15, 2011 - 3:04AM

Natural forests undisturbed by humans are irreplaceable while degraded forests are a poor substitute, a new study has found.

The team of Australian and international scientists is strongly urging the protection of primary forests as a result of its findings.

The study, published in the scientific journal Nature, says most forms of forest degradation have an overwhelmingly detrimental effect on tropical biodiversity.

The report compared human impacts on biodiversity across key forested regions across the world.

"The conclusion is very clear," report co-author Professor Corey Bradshaw from the University of Adelaide said.

"Undisturbed primary forests are the only ones in which a full complement of species can thrive."

The team emphasised that until now some people believed that revegetation and other conservation programs in secondary forests would be enough to help preserve or return most species.

"It's not that secondary forests have no biodiversity value. They are just less valuable than primary forests. We should be focused on protecting primary forests as much as possible."

Professor Bradshaw's colleagues also emphasised that most forms of forest degradation have an overwhelmingly detrimental effect on biodiversity.

"The study shows that the impact of human interference in those forests is too strong. We're kidding ourselves if we think the damage can be reversed," Professor Barry Brook also from the University of Adelaide said.

South-East Asia is the worst affected area, suffering the greatest losses of biodiversity of any tropical region over the past 50 years.

The report's authors said that while South-East Asia must remain one of the top priority regions, that doesn't mean other areas can be ignored.

They suggest the expansion and greater enforcement of protected areas.

"We have already invested substantially in setting up parks. So expanding them and making them more effective might be practical," one of the study's leaders, PhD student Tien Ming Lee said.

AAP

Government's VicForests logs a profit, but only just

2011-09-15T13:08:00.000+10:00

Ben Butler
The Age, September 15, 2011

THE state government's logging company, VicForests, burnt through more than $5 million in cash last year as its customers struggled to pay their bills, accounts tabled in Parliament yesterday reveal.

Thanks to a $5.8 million grant for bushfire recovery services from the government, the native forest logging monopoly declared a profit of $2.3 million for 2010-11.

But VicForests' operating cash flow was negative for the second year running and its borrowing from government again blew out, increasing from $19 million to $25 million - a tenfold increase since 2009, when it owed Treasury just $2.3 million. A dramatic surge in overdue customer accounts, which ballooned from about $6.9 million to about $16.4 million, was due to ''the difficulties the timber industry is currently experiencing'', the company said in notes to its accounts.

''A major customer incurred substantial debts amounting to $7.3 million and up to 60 days past due, which has resulted in VicForests suspending supply,'' the company said. The customer had resumed paying in July or August, ''with the account expected to be current by the end of August''.

''Without this delay VicForests would have returned to a positive operational cash-flow position in 2011,'' the company said. It said some customers were on payment plans and one big customer had quit the business, leaving behind a ''long-outstanding debt'' that was being repaid.

VicForests also wrote off $407,000 of trade debts it no longer believes will be collected.

Chief executive David Pollard said VicForests' financial results had improved ''even though the global markets for wood fibre of all types remains problematic''.

''We are optimistic about sustained performance in the year ahead, particularly if continuing pricing problems can be resolved with key customers,'' he said.

One customer has owed VicForests $3.5 million for more than a year, but is disputing the amount, the accounts show.

He said VicForests had been ''discussing strategies to revivify the industry in Victoria'' with the Baillieu government, elected in November. ''This has included a range of related activities that affect the commerciality of VicForests and necessary changes to law and regulation.''

Keep city liveable

2011-09-15T09:20:00.000+10:00

Steven Katsineris, Hurstbridge
The Age (letter), 15 Sep 2011

MUCH of Melbourne's liveability status is intimately bound up with its bushland areas and green spaces. I hope the people of Melbourne can make the state government understand the importance of the woodland of the suburban fringe areas. The outer Melbourne region's dams and weirs provide the unpolluted water the people of Melbourne drink.

Trees and other vegetation act as a natural water purifier, with the forest floor filtering mountain water that runs into the dams, keeping our water clear and pure. The region's trees also give Melbourne its good air quality, inhaling carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. The region provides habitat for wildlife, places for rest and leisure activities. And most importantly its forests store carbon and reduce the effects of climate change. These are just some of the myriad valuable ways green wedges assist Melbourne, the nation and the planet. We need to treasure and protect these precious natural assets.

Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity

2011-09-14T21:11:00.001+10:00

Luke Gibson, Tien Ming Lee, Lian Pin Koh, Barry W. Brook, Toby A. Gardner, Jos Barlow, Carlos A. Peres, Corey J. A. Bradshaw, William F. Laurance, Thomas E. Lovejoy & Navjot S. Sodhi

Nature, 14 September 2011

Received 13 May 2011 Accepted 08 August 2011 Published online 14 September 2011

Human-driven land-use changes increasingly threaten biodiversity, particularly in tropical forests where both species diversity and human pressures on natural environments are high1. The rapid conversion of tropical forests for agriculture, timber production and other uses has generated vast, human-dominated landscapes with potentially dire consequences for tropical biodiversity. Today, few truly undisturbed tropical forests exist, whereas those degraded by repeated logging and fires, as well as secondary and plantation forests, are rapidly expanding.

Here we provide a global assessment of the impact of disturbance and land conversion on biodiversity in tropical forests using a meta-analysis of 138 studies. We analysed 2,220 pairwise comparisons of biodiversity values in primary forests (with little or no human disturbance) and disturbed forests.

We found that biodiversity values were substantially lower in degraded forests, but that this varied considerably by geographic region, taxonomic group, ecological metric and disturbance type. Even after partly accounting for confounding colonization and succession effects due to the composition of surrounding habitats, isolation and time since disturbance, we find that most forms of forest degradation have an overwhelmingly detrimental effect on tropical biodiversity. Our results clearly indicate that when it comes to maintaining tropical biodiversity, there is no substitute for primary forests.

Gunns accepts $23m compo deal

2011-09-14T17:32:00.002+10:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), September 14, 2011

The Tasmanian timber company, Gunns, has reached an agreement with the State Government on compensation.

Gunns has formally accepted an offer of $23 million to abandon its residual native timber rights.

State-owned Forestry Tasmania will also be paid $11.5 million to ensure it does not on-sell the native forest contracts.

The Premier, Lara Giddings, says the payment is necessary as the Government is not able to direct FT to extinguish the contracts.

Ms Giddings says the payments will also settle the dispute between FT and Gunns over an alleged $25 million debt.

The Government's original offer rejected by Gunns was for $23 million to be split equally between Gunns and FT.

Gunns will update the stock exchange tomorrow on the details of the agreement and the implications for the company.

Its shares have been suspended from trading for more than a month, pending an outcome of negotiations.

Ms Giddings says the deal aims to avoid the possibility of lengthy court action.

"We have resolution of issues that must be resolved in order for the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) to progress."

"That of course is step one, that Gunns step out of the native forest industry and the $23 million enabled that to happen.

"They did have residual contractual rights that the Solicitor-General told us we needed to settle.

"Similarly, if we did not settle these issues with Forestry Tasmania, these contracts could otherwise have been on-sold and therefore wouldn't be available for verification of conservation outcomes.

"This resolution means that we have avoided the lengthy delays and costs that would inevitably be incurred if these issues were pursued through the courts," the Premier said.

The Forest Contractors Association has welcomed the agreement.

Spokesman Ed Vincent says he hopes it means contractors will soon be able to apply for grants from the $45-million industry exit assistance package.

"I think realistically it is going to take a few weeks before contractors actually receive any approvals."

"There'll need to be an application process gone through but hopefully that application process will be announced within the next few days.

"From our point of view, it's essential that that be reached to provide some surety for the contractors who are looking to progress the exit package under the IGA so that they can actually retire out of the industry with some dignity," he said.

Union chops link to forestry body

2011-09-13T11:59:00.000+10:00

Ben Butler
The Age, September 13, 2011

GAPS have widened in the formerly close alliance between the CFMEU and the forestry industry with the resignation of a union official from a key industry body.

In a scathing letter to Australian Forestry Standard chairman Geoff Gorrie, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union forestry and furnishings policy research officer Travis Wacey said he was resigning from the board of the environmental standards body because ''I do not want to be associated with a company which has such standards as I see it as detrimental to my professional reputation''.

The union's forestry and furnishings division has been a staunch friend to the forestry industry, even to the extent of supporting the timber policy of former prime minister John Howard during the 2004 election campaign.

But late last year the union signalled a move away from its support for logging in native forests, saying it would attempt to secure a plantation timber-based future for its members by talking to the green groups with which it had been locked in conflict.

In his letter to Mr Gorrie, sent on Thursday, Mr Wacey said the process used by the AFS to appoint Richard Stanton, formerly head of plantation timber lobby group A3P as chief executive, was ''potentially or actually compromised'' and said corporate governance at the organisation needed to be overhauled.

It is believed Mr Wacey's concerns about corporate governance relate in part to the dominant position state-owned native logging companies, including VicForests, enjoy on the AFS board.

AFS differs from its rival, the Forest Stewardship Council, by placing more emphasis on the views of industry than those of green and community groups.

Directors appointed by government-owned loggers hold four of nine board seats.

The private forestry sector has three seats, while community organisations and employees have one seat each. Mr Wacey represented employees as the representative of AFS's sole employee sector member, the CFMEU.

While Mr Wacey's letter to Mr Gorrie made it clear he regarded Mr Stanton as a ''quality appointment'', he raised concerns that the position was not advertised.

He said the appointment process ''lacked transparency'' and did not deal with ''serious conflict of interest issues''.

Mr Gorrie said he had received the letter but did not wish to comment

Timber auditor axes operations

2011-09-12T16:14:00.000+10:00

Ben Butler
The Age, September 12, 2011

THE ORGANISATION that gives a green tick to some of Australia's biggest timber and paper companies has voluntarily suspended most of its operations after a bruising stoush with environment groups over its approval of paper brand Reflex.

SmartWood, a division of Rainforest Alliance, gave up its ability to give out chain of custody certifications following an investigation into its audit of Reflex maker Australian Paper by international governing body the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

In addition to Australian Paper, Smartwood certified Tasmanian forestry group Gunns, plantation owners Hancock, tissue company Kimberly Clark and Norwegian paper group Norske Skog, which supplies most newsprint used in Australia.

The voluntary suspension was accepted by Accreditation Services International (ASI), which was auditing SmartWood on behalf of the FSC, on September 1, and remains in force until lifted by ASI.
''This is the first time in the development of FSC Australia that this has occurred,'' local FSC head Michael Spencer said.

He said the suspension showed the FSC system worked. ''Integrity is really paramount to the system,'' he said. ''Businesses particularly need to know the rules are applied consistently.''

If SmartWood is not reinstated then once certificates held by the Australian companies it audited expire, those clients will have to find a new auditor to remain in the FSC program.

ASI's investigation of SmartWood was triggered by environment groups unhappy it had continued to certify Australian Paper's use of timber logged from native forests by the Victorian government's logging company, VicForests. Green groups say all native forests in Australia are classified ''high conservation value'' and cannot be logged for use in FSC-certified products.

Australian Paper withdrew from the FSC system last month so it could continue to use VicForests logs, approved by rival accreditation system the Australian Forestry Standard.

My Environment director Sarah Rees, whose complaint helped spark ASI's probe, said the result showed that the FSC ''is capable of responding to environmental and community change''.

''This is a fair and transparent audit and has put FSC leagues ahead of other timber standards in Australia.''
Wilderness Society forest campaigner Luke Chamberlain said ''by hitching their wagon to the unsustainable practices of VicForests and Australian Paper, Rainforest Alliance have taken themselves out in what is an international blight on forestry practices in Australia''.

SmartWood spokeswoman Anita Neville said the organisation would invest in auditor training and reviewing its performance against Australian FSC standards with a view to ''getting back to work in this area as soon as possible in 2012''.

Just 1% of central highlands old growth survives

2011-09-12T11:30:00.001+10:00

Adam Morton
The Age, 12 Sep 2011

BEFORE European settlement up to 80 per cent of the wet eucalyptus forest of Victoria's central highlands was old-growth mountain ash, with trees taller than 90 metres towering above the landscape.

According to research published in US journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the old-growth is nearly gone and on the verge of being unrecoverable.

The paper says decades of logging and frequent bushfire have reduced the area of old-growth to about 2000 hectares - 1.2 per cent of the forest area north-east of Healesville.

Lead researcher David Lindenmayer, from Australian National University's Fenner School of Environment and Society, said if the current combination of clearfelling and fire continued the mountain ash could be lost and replaced by wattle, or ''acacia scrub''.

''This forest is one of the saddest things I've ever seen in 30 years of ecological science. What we are seeing is a truly iconic forest evaporating before our eyes and it will never be the same again,'' Professor
Lindenmayer said.

''If it collapses into acacia scrub, it is impossible to get out again. It really is a catastrophe in the true sense of the word.''

The paper says Victoria's central highlands forest is an example of a ''landscape trap'' - a new label for an ecosystem that is fundamentally changed through human action and natural disturbance.

More than 150 years ago the central highlands were dominated by forests aged 200 to 450 years, and regulated by infrequent late summer wildfires that released seedlings from burnt trees to produce new stands.

According to the paper, in the past century the natural cycle has been disturbed by more frequent bushfires - there have been at least five, including Black Saturday in 2009 - and clearfell logging for pulp and timber.

It says the frequency and severity of fires has been exacerbated by the reduction in rainfall and overall forest age in recent decades - young mountain ash saplings are densely packed and more likely to burn.

When the time between regenerating events is less than 20-30 years, mountain ash is at risk by being replaced by other species.

Professor Lindenmayer said the loss of mountain ash had a huge impact on biodiversity, water supply for Melbourne's catchments and carbon dioxide emissions.

A 2009 paper found the central highlands' forest was the most carbon-dense in the world.
About 40 local vertebrate species rely on old-growth tree hollows for habitat.

Trees older than 100 years are no longer logged, but Professor Lindenmayer said fixing the landscape trap would require ending clearfell logging and trying to limit future fires through prescribed burning in some areas to reduce the risk to surviving old-growth.

''What is really needed now is restorative forestry, not industrial forestry, which is what we've got now,'' he said.

State government-owned timber agency VicForests says it operates sustainably.
Last week it released a consultant's report that found claims that plantation timber could completely replace native forest wood in Victoria were unrealistic.

The paper comes as conservation group My Environment is applying for a court injunction to stop logging in three forest coupes near Toolangi on the grounds they could be home to the endangered Leadbeater's possum.

The case is scheduled to be heard in the Supreme Court next week.

amorton@theage.com.au

Compo decision within days

2011-09-11T11:35:00.000+10:00

Blair Richards
The Mercury, 11 September 2011

GUNNS Limited is expected to decide within days if it will accept a second and potentially much larger offer from the State Government to exit native forests.

Late last week the company rejected an initial offer of a maximum of $23 million.

A Gunns spokesman yesterday said the company would respond to the latest offer this week.

The Government has said the new offer would remain confidential until it got a response from Gunns.

The Federal Government has provided funding for a deal under the $276 million Intergovernmental Agreement.

On Friday, Premier Lara Giddings said the new offer included a proposed resolution of disputed debts of up to $25 million between Forestry Tasmania and Gunns.

Ms Giddings has confirmed there is now $43 million available if necessary to pay Gunns in return for the company giving up its native-forest contracts.

Ms Giddings said the Government would provide details on both the original and follow up offers made to Gunns, once the company agreed to a deal.

Yesterday the State Opposition seized on comments by former state Labor minister Julian Amos that the State Government should walk away from the Intergovernmental Agreement.

In a column published in yesterday's Mercury, Dr Amos said Gunns had made the decision to exit native forest logging long before any Government compensation was put on the table.

Yet the company had put its hand out for money and, rejecting an initial offer, had asked for more in what he described "an extraordinary exhibition of arrogance".

"To destroy an entire industry, to ruin the livelihoods of so many people, to place so many rural communities in jeopardy and then seek compensation for doing so, quite takes my breath away," Dr Amos wrote.

Opposition forestry spokesman Peter Gutwein said he agreed with Dr Amos' suggestion that the State Government drop the Intergovernmental Agreement and revert to the Regional Forests Agreement.

"Given Gunns voluntarily gave up its native forest contracts, compensation should not be paid to them at all -- end of story," he said.

Old-growth forests won't save planet

2011-09-04T10:54:00.000+10:00

Martin Moroni and Ian Ferguson
WA Today, September 4, 2011

Managing regrowth may help us turn green, write Martin Moroni and Ian Ferguson.

IN AUSTRALIA, too often we're told the solution to all environmental problems is locking all native forests in unmanaged reserves, where they'll be immortal, grow forever and continuously suck large amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

We're led to believe all forested landscapes can become old growth, and that forest management destroys forests. This is simplistic, flawed and represents missed opportunities for the environment, society and the economy.

Most of Australia's forests aren't full of enormous old trees and most of our old-growth is already in reserves. Just 6 per cent of Australia's forests are managed for wood production.

Managed forests maintain biodiversity, water quantity and quality and produce a variety of other goods and services, including carbon sequestration, employment, income and other opportunities to society.
Sure, photosynthesis takes carbon from carbon dioxide, an atmospheric gas, to form wood. Dry wood is half carbon by weight and each tonne of carbon absorbed from the atmosphere into wood came from about four tonnes of carbon dioxide.

So wood products store carbon in them and trees can absorb some carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. But trees can't absorb all the carbon released from the burning of fossil fuels. To do so would require us to produce enough wood to form a 30-cubic-kilometre block of wood almost four times the height of Mount Everest, from forests each year. This is impossible. We must focus on reducing the burning of fossil fuels.

Growing forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but as they die they emit it. Wildfires frequently burn our forests releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere and preventing many forests from becoming old-growth.

Since 2003, 3.5 million hectares have burnt in Victoria. Many of our prime forests require high-intensity wildfires to regenerate - they cannot remain as old-growth indefinitely. Valuable as it may be, storing carbon in forests doesn't change our use of fossil fuels.

Cutting trees down is the only way forests can reduce our use of fossil fuels. This is done by using wood instead of fossil fuels for heat or electricity and, most effectively, using wood instead of products associated with large emissions.

For example, the use of metal, concrete and plastic in construction produces more greenhouse gasses than when wood is used in their place.

Ideally, we should substitute fossil fuels and emission-intensive materials with renewable alternatives like wood.

Globally, wood products store an additional 150 million tonnes of carbon annually and landfill another 44 million tonnes, equivalent to removing 700 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Wood use in residential house construction instead of non-wood alternatives prevented 483 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted in 2007. By 2030 the global use of forest bio-energy will prevent 1000 million tonnes of fossil fuel carbon emissions annually.

These initiatives lack support in Australia where we are missing easy, proven opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with forests, unlike their rapid uptake in Europe and North America.

Wood products are traded on the global market. Australia has an annual $2 billion deficit in wood products, annually importing 600,000 to 900,000 cubic metres of sawn wood extracted from thousands of hectares of international forests each year, much of which are managed to lesser standards than Australia's forests.

Withdrawal of more Australian native forests from management can be expected to increase greenhouse gas emissions from more intensive harvesting elsewhere, and from increased transportation of imports. That is not a green outcome. Sustainable management of Australia's native regrowth forests is.

Dr Martin Moroni is senior research scientist, forest carbon, at Forestry Tasmania, and Ian Ferguson is professor emeritus of forest science, University of Melbourne.

FOOTNOTES:

The authors of the above article clearly have a vested interest in the continued logging of Australia native forests.
Bushfires do not prevent native forests "becoming old growth", nor do they destroy forests to the same extent that clear fell logging and burning them does.
The authors neglect to mention that about 80% of the logs extracted from native forests ends up was woodchips, the vast majority of which are exported to Japan.
Old growth forests don't "emit carbon", they continue to store it
The authors neglect to mention that logging native forests, particularly old growth ones, put very significant net carbon emissions into the atmosphere, that are are not offset by regrowth forests within a 200 year period

Forestry Tasmania posts $12m loss

2011-08-29T23:09:00.000+10:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), August 29, 2011

Forestry Tasmania has blamed a raft of issues on an operating loss of over $12 million last financial year.

The state-owned company says it has faced a long list of problems, including the decision of its largest customer, Gunns, to get out of native forest harvesting and close woodchip mills.

Chairman Adrian Kloeden has described last financial year as a tough one, both financially and politically.

"The Statement of Principles negotiations, the ongoing effects of the global financial crisis, the high Australian dollar and the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of March this year; of these issues the closure of the Triabunna woodchip mill had one of the most detrimental effects on our year end trading results."

The company has moved to significantly reduce operating costs, including reducing its workforce from 400 to 350 full-time equivalents.

Uncertainty caused by the forests peace deal has forced a write down in the value of its forests.

Mr Kloeden says the forests are now worth $90 million less than the previous financial year.

"[It's a] 30 per cent reduction in the value of the forest estate," he said.

FT says it holds out little hope of Gunns' Triabunna mill reopening.

This year's result was a slight improvement on its previous result which has been revised to a $12.2 million deficit due to a change in the way the company must report.

FT will not be able to return a dividend to the Government this year.

Resources Minister Bryan Green says the Government is not surprised.

"Contractors have been going broke through that period, that's why the governments have had to step in and assist the industry and this is a further reflection," he said.

"That's why the Government has embarked on a process of restructuring the forest industry so as to ensure that we put it on a sustainable footing going forward."

Federal Environment Act Reform fails Forests and Climate Change

2011-08-25T16:24:00.000+10:00

Media Release
Australian Forests and Climate Alliance (AFCA), - Thursday 25 August 2011

Forest conservation and climate action groups across Australia today condemned the Gillard Government's failure to end years of forest destruction by leaving Regional Forest Agreements in place and exempt from Federal Environmental protection laws.

"The Gillard Government's changes to national environment legislation ignore the most critical conservation issue in Australia - that intensive industrial logging and woodchipping of native forests has unacceptable impacts on wildlife and climate change", said Peter Campbell, spokesperson for the Australian Forests and Conservation Alliance (AFCA).

“How can anyone take seriously a Government that reviews the national environment protection law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), and deliberately excludes protection of native forests?” said Peter Campbell

“The Gillard Government is determined to continue with the fiction that various Regional Forest Agreements, which overrule both the EPBC Act and corresponding State laws to enable resource security legislation for the logging industry, provide credible environmental protection for forests. It is quite clear that RFAs have failed to do this." said Peter Campbell.

"There is overwhelming evidence that RFA’s are failing to protect wildlife, water resources or account for climate change impacts of the industrial logging and associated burning.” said Prue Acton, from the South East Region Conservation Alliance.

“The Government has refused yet again to bring forests back under the protection of the EPBC Act despite widespread breaches across the country of so-called environmental protections for forests." said Noel Plumb, from Chipbusters.

There is now clear scientific evidence that industrial logging and woodchipping of native forests is destroying their capacity to absorb ever rising C02 emissions, and also releases enormous amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere.” said Peter Campbell

Mike Kelly MP, the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, recently told the national Forest and Climate Forum in Canberra that the Government intended to review the RFA’s next year, prior to their renewal.

“This ‘head in the sand’ position is not acceptable as the world spirals towards a biodiversity loss and climate change disasters. The RFA’s must be consigned to the rubbish bin of history.” said Noel Plumb.

“We need a new approach right now to rapidly move the logging industry out of native forests and into existing plantations that now dominate the market. This approach could more than double Australia’s present efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions and protect biodiversity.” said Peter Campbell.

For further comment: -

Peter Campbell (AFCA) 0409 417 504
Prue Acton (SERCA) 02 6494 5144
Noel Plumb (Chipbusters) 0425 23 83 03

Court orders temporary logging injunction

2011-08-25T16:18:00.002+10:00

Margaret Paul
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), August 25, 2011

The Victorian Supreme Court has ordered the state-owned timber company, VicForests, to temporarily stop logging in the Sylvia Creek Forest, north-east of Melbourne.

Environmentalists were seeking an injunction to stop what they describe as accelerated logging in the forest.

They say the area is an important habitat for the threatened Leadbeater's possum.

The court granted an injunction until 4:15pm (AEST).

My Environment spokeswoman, Sarah Rees, says she hopes the court will extend the injunction.

"Through the tears, I think this is the first step towards a hopeful future for the Leadbeater's possum," she said.

"We're confident the judge is receptive to the concerns the community share about the Leadbeaters possum and its future, which at the moment is in question."

Ms Rees says she has spoken to Toolangi locals, who are relieved.

She says around 20 protesters are at the forest today.

"Naturally, you can imagine that for the moment they're quite jubilant that they're going to see that the trees are no longer coming down," she said.

Lawyers acting for My Environment told the court, logging activity had escalated in the past few days.

They told the court, 20 per cent of the Gun Barrel coupe had been felled within the past two days.

The court heard the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires damaged much of the area

The judge ordered VicForests to stop felling trees in the area until this afternoon, but said they could continue to remove any trees that had already been chopped down.

In a statement, VicForests says it will comply with the court order.

It says it has assessed the area, in conjunction with the Department of Sustainability and Environment and found it is not an accepted habitat for the possum.

Court orders Sylvia Creek logging halt

2011-08-25T16:16:00.002+10:00

Weekly Times Now, August 25, 2011

AAP

AN ENVIRONMENT group has won a temporary injunction to stop logging in a Victorian forest that may contain endangered possums.

MyEnvironment applied to the Victorian Supreme Court today for an urgent injunction to stop VicForests logging trees in the Sylvia Creek Forest near Toolangi, northeast of Melbourne.

A barrister for the group, Kristen Walker, told the court the area provided a habitat for the endangered Leadbeater's Possum.

She said logging activity in the area had increased in the past few days and unless an injunction were granted soon, irreversible damage would be caused to the forest.

There are believed to be fewer than 1000 possums remaining but that number may have diminished even further since the February 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, the court heard.

Justice Robert Osborn granted a temporary injunction stopping logging until 4.15pm (AEST) today.

Lawyers for VicForests are expected to make further submissions when the matter returns to court at 2.15pm (AEST) today.

Court orders logging halt in Vic forest

2011-08-25T16:14:00.000+10:00

Sydney Morning Herald, August 25, 2011

AAP

An environment group has won a temporary injunction to stop logging in a Victorian forest that is said to contain endangered possums.

MyEnvironment applied to the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday for an urgent injunction to stop VicForests logging trees in the Sylvia Creek Forest near Toolangi north-east of Melbourne.

A barrister for the group, Kristen Walker, told the court the area provided a habitat for the endangered Leadbeater's Possum.

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She said logging activity in the area had increased in the past few days and unless an injunction were granted soon, irreversible damage would be caused to the forest.

There are believed to be fewer than 1000 possums remaining but that number may have diminished even further since the February 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, the court heard.

Justice Robert Osborn granted a temporary injunction stopping logging until 4.15pm (AEST) on Thursday.

Lawyers for VicForests are expected to make further submissions when the matter returns to court at 2.15pm (AEST) on Thursday.

2011 AAP

Court Orders Temporary Logging Injunction

2011-08-25T16:11:00.000+10:00

Margaret Paul
ABC, AustraliaNews.com.au, Thu 25 August 2011

The Victorian Supreme Court has ordered the state-owned timber company, VicForests, to temporarily stop logging in the Sylvia Creek Forest, north-east of Melbourne. Environmentalists were seeking an injunction to stop what they describe as accelerated logging in the forest. They say the area is an important habitat for the threatened Leadbeater's possum.

The court granted an injunction until 4:15pm (AEST). My Environment spokeswoman, Sarah Rees, says she hopes the court will extend the injunction. "Through the tears, I think this is the first step towards a hopeful future for the Leadbeater's possum," she said. "We're confident the judge is receptive to the concerns the community share about the Leadbeaters possum and its future, which at the moment is in question." Ms Rees says she has spoken to Toolangi locals, who are relieved.

She says around 20 protesters are at the forest today. "Naturally, you can imagine that for the moment they're quite jubilant that they're going to see that the trees are no longer coming down," she said. Lawyers acting for My Environment told the court, logging activity had escalated in the past few days.

They told the court, 20 per cent of the Gun Barrel coupe had been felled within the past two days. The court heard the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires damaged much of the area The judge ordered VicForests to stop felling trees in the area until this afternoon, but said they could continue to remove any trees that had already been chopped down.

In a statement, VicForests says it will comply with the court order. It says it has assessed the area, in conjunction with the Department of Sustainability and Environment and found it is not an accepted habitat for the possum.

Court bid to halt logging at Sylvia Creek

2011-08-24T21:45:00.000+10:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), August 24, 2011

Environment groups are seeking a Supreme Court injunction against the logging of bushland near Sylvia Creek, near Toolangi.

The State Government-owned timber company, VicForests, has begun logging parts of the forest.

Opponents claim the area is home to the endangered Leadbeater's possum and must be protected.

VicForests disputes this.

Conservation lawyer Vanessa Blyer says her client's case is clear.

"The writ alleges that Leadbeaters possum habitat is being logged right now," she said.

"As a result, the logging is unlawful.

"And as a result, the court is asked to permanently restrain VicForests from logging near Leadbeaters possum habitat."

Reflex paper loses green tick of approval after native timber stoush

2011-08-23T17:33:00.004+10:00

Ben Butler
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, August 23, 2011

AUSTRALIA'S best-known brand of paper, Reflex, is to be stripped of its international green certification after its maker, Australian Paper, watered down its commitment to the Forest Stewardship Council system.

Australian Paper's decision means it will continue to use wood sourced from native forest to make Reflex - welcome news for Victorian state government-owned logger VicForests, which counts the company among its largest customers.

While auditor SmartWood, a division of the Rainforest Alliance, said Australian Paper now has six months to remove the FSC logo from Reflex packaging, a company spokesman said it had not used the logo for about six months.

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SmartWood said existing plantation and recycled paper FSC certifications held by Australian Paper were not affected.

The company's certification under the rival Australian Forestry Standard was also unaffected.

Australian Paper's decision follows a long-running stoush between the company and conservation groups over the interpretation of an FSC clause forbidding the use of wood from ''high conservation value'' forests.

Australian Paper chief executive Jim Henneberry said the company had decided to withdraw its ''controlled wood'' from its FSC certification because of ''uncertainty'' over interpretation of the standard. Company spokesman Shaun Scallan denied the move was a backflip from a written commitment given by Mr Henneberry in May last year, in which he promised Australian Paper would not obtain ''wood harvested in forests where high conservation values are threatened by management activities''.

''We're hopeful that we'll get a definitive position on the issue that caused us to withdraw from the controlled wood standard,'' Mr Scallan said.

''We'll continue to work with them.''

Sarah Rees, a director of Healesville-based green group MyEnvironment, said Australian Paper had ''dumped their green tick in order to continue to buy wood from VicForests''.

Forest protesters reject survey blow

2011-08-23T17:23:00.001+10:00

Natalie Kotsios
Maroondah Weekly, 23 Aug, 2011 04:00 AM

PROTESTERS have vowed to continue the fight against logging at Sylvia Creek, despite a new survey finding no grounds for a contentious coupe to be classified as a Leadbeater's possum habitat.
Protests at the Gun Barrel coupe have continued for the past month, leading to 10 arrests of conservationists and local activists.

Standing firm: Protesters at the Sylvia Creek coupe last week. Picture: Peter Campbell

Among them is Steve Meacher, chairman of Healesville Environmental Watch, who last week said he received verbal confirmation that active possum nests were found during a second Department of Sustainability and Environment survey of the area on August 12.

But a DSE spokeswoman said there were no live Leadbeater's possum nests in the coupe and that no zone 1A or 1B habitats had been found.

She said one tree had been found to contain used hollows but that these did not necessarily belong to a Leadbeater. The tree in question will not be removed.

Under DSE guidelines, an active habitat needs to be at least three hectares to qualify. But Mr Meacher said that when endangered species were at stake, a broader view should be taken.

"Half the population of Leadbeater's possum were lost in the 2009 fires," he said.

"We are looking at the last thousand in the world. Every single animal is important when you get to that stage."

About 80 people attended another protest at the coupe last Wednesday. Further arrests had been expected but VicForests told the Weekly logging had been cancelled that day due to wet conditions.

Protesters then rallied at the VicForests' headquarters in Healesville.

"No one had the courage to come out and answer questions," Mr Meacher said.

VicForests' operations manager Andrew McGuire said the protesters' behaviour that day was disappointing, with people repeatedly banging objects on office windows.

"Staff held fears that the front windows of the office would be smashed," Mr McGuire said. "While we recognise and respect the right of protesters to express their opinions, the behaviour we saw this week borders on intimidation."

He said VicForests was committed to engaging in a constructive manner with the community.

Logging Sylvia Creek forest must stop (Worth more standing)

2011-08-19T16:11:00.001+10:00

Peter Campbell
The Age (letter), 19 August 2011

I, along with around 100 local residents, visited the Sylvia creek forest near Toolangi in Victoria that is currently being logged by VicForests.

I was schocked and disgusted by the destruction I saw wrought on this wonderful forest. Not a single tree was left standing, and many portions of logs were lying around apparently discarded. It was a scene of utter devastation.

This forest survived the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and provides homes for Leadbeaters Possum and other endangered species. Yet it is being devastated by VicForests, in contravention with the law that is supposed to protect it.

Destroying these forests for low-value woodchips makes no sense. These forests are used for walking, mountain biking, bird watching and a host of other recreational purposes. They are worth far more to our community standing than chopped down.

It is time the Victorian government got out of the logging business and protected our remaining native to preserve their biodiverstiy, and for future generations to enjoy.

More photos

Destruction on our doorstep

2011-08-19T12:25:00.000+10:00

Ray and Marion Lewis, Toolangi
The Age (letter), 19 August 2011

WE ARE appalled that the Baillieu government is so negligent in caring for Victoria's endangered species. It seems to be unable to learn from mistakes of the past that have led to so many species becoming extinct. In Toolangi we are trying to preserve the last of the Leadbeater's possum habitat and other precious animals after the devastating Black Saturday fires. Logging in this area will push many animals to extinction. Our government has a responsibility to govern for all in this state, and I am sure most people would prefer to save our state's emblem. No amount of money earned from logging could make up for the loss of a species which once lost, is lost forever.

The government plans to weaken the laws that prevent logging from areas with endangered wildlife. We hear about logging in Indonesia and Brazil laying waste to vast areas. The same thing is happening on our doorstep. We need to preserve our native forests, especially on the edge of Melbourne as they help attract the rain to our catchments and moderate the temperature.

Up the wrong tree

2011-08-19T12:12:00.000+10:00

Curtis Treloar, Bentleigh East
The Age (letter), 19 August 2011

JOSH Gordon's article (''Threatened species yield ground to loggers'', 17/8) starts with the wrong focus. These changes sound like they would help better protect threatened species. A 2009 report by the Auditor-General on the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act found the act was poorly implemented and in need of review. Recommendations to improve the legislation were made in 2002, but have not been implemented.

Nothing has changed in two years it seems, with the article stating ''the department currently searches for threatened species only in areas earmarked for logging, leaving most of Victoria's old-growth forests unchecked''.

This means there is more monitoring in timber production forests than national parks. We need to invest in the management of our expansive national parks and stop being fixated on the small amount of timber harvesting.

This debate is being skewed by the radicals and we need better landscape management.

I applaud the government for finishing a job the last government left for eight years.

Forest peace hangs on Gunns settlement

2011-08-18T16:30:00.000+10:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
August 18, 2011

Tasmania's Premier has revealed the $276 million forest peace deal will not proceed if a commercial settlement with timber company Gunns over its contract rights can not be reached.

Lara Giddings says her legal advice is Gunns has a legal right to settlement money despite the company voluntarily handing back its native forest contracts.

The Premier says an agreement is needed to extinguish Gunns' right to renegotiate contracts and clear the way for the forest peace deal.

"And that's the element that the government is very keen to resolve," she said.

Commonwealth assistance to forest contractors will not flow until the matter is sorted.

"That's the issue that is really at the heart of this," she said.

Ms Giddings says she knows a decision to compensate will be unpopular but the Government is legally bound to do so.

"I'm very aware that the broader community are feeling quite angry at the moment of the behaviour of Gunns in recent times and the impact that they have had on decisions like Triabunna and in fact many people have come up to me and said they don't want to see one single dollar go to Gunns as a result.

"There is an absolute interest in this issue."

The money will come from a $23 million federal funding pool.

An independent probity auditor will be appointed by the end of the day to oversee the process and an agreement is expected in weeks.

The Opposition's Jeremy Rockliff is not convinced.

"This Government and this Premier have bowed to Greens pressure all the way through this whole forestry saga," he said.

"It's another example of the Premier and this Government outsourcing their responsibility."

Editorial: Baillieu must stay true to the environment

2011-08-18T11:32:00.000+10:00

The Age, editorial
August 18, 2011

The list of worrying conservation policies is too long.

THE Liberal Party in Victoria has a proud history of protecting the state's environmental heritage. Sir Rupert Hamer's government of the 1970s, in particular, left a legacy of environmental concern and legislative reform that continues to enrich the state's famed liveability. The Hamerite Victorian Liberal tradition is founded on such things as the strengthening of environmental protection laws under the watch of an independent and well-resourced Environmental Protection Authority and, perhaps most valuably, the creation of so-called green wedges between Melbourne's transport corridors to act, in Sir Rupert's memorable phrase, as the ''lungs of the city''. It would therefore be surprising, and distressing, if the Liberal/National Coalition government of Ted Baillieu were to preside over a diminution of Victoria's natural assets. Yet, the early signs are not good.

Over summer, the new government took the retrograde step of allowing cattle grazing to resume in the National Heritage-listed Alpine National Park, arguing that more scientific research was needed on the discredited claim that grazing significantly reduces fire risk in the high country. The National Parks Association aptly condemned the study as ''the terrestrial version of Japan's scientific whaling'', and the federal government appropriately intervened to protect the park. In the absence of evidence that grazing can be done without further degradation, we believe the state government should abandon its plans to return cattle to the park again next summer.

Last month, The Saturday Age reported that Planning Minister Matthew Guy has written to councils asking for them to provide wish-lists of changes they would like to see in their green wedge areas. It is telling that developers have welcomed the move, but environmentalists are deeply concerned. Sir Rupert's widow, Lady Hamer, was moved to write a letter to the editor, warning that any encroachment into green spaces was irreversible and urging that today's legislators keep faith with her husband's vision.

''Speculators, of course, will disagree, but remaining faithful to the original intention of the green wedges would give us all a more disciplined, sustainable and welcoming city for future generations,'' she wrote. We urge Mr Baillieu and Mr Guy to resist any temptation to compromise the integrity of green wedges to satisfy developers' wishes.

Yesterday, The Age revealed that Victoria's old-growth forests could be opened to more logging under a Baillieu government plan to dilute long-standing environmental laws designed to protect threatened species. The Department of Sustainability and Environment has quietly begun looking at the state's 23-year-old Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act with a view to ensuring logging proposals are less likely to be derailed by evidence of the existence of animals deemed to be endangered. Departmental sources say the government is concerned that environment groups are becoming increasingly skillful at capturing footage of endangered species to thwart logging operations. Victoria's interests are indeed ill served if spurious claims made by over-zealous environmentalists are allowed to prevent legitimate commercial activities. But bone fide evidence of threats to the habitats of endangered species must continue to be afforded due weight in decisions about the timber industry. Victorians are entitled to hear more from the government about its intentions for the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act specifically, and its attitude to the protection of endangered species more generally.

The pattern that is emerging on environmental policy calls into question the Baillieu government's commitment to conservation. Mr Baillieu is often cited as a progressive Liberal in the Hamer tradition. On the environment, as elsewhere, he needs to do more to earn the comparison.

Failing the forest

2011-08-18T00:16:00.002+10:00

Sarah Day, Brunswick
The Age (letter), 18 August 2011

THERE'S less than 8 per cent of old-growth forest cover left in Victoria. Conservationists have identified endangered species in this area that is earmarked for logging. The Baillieu government's response? Review the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act so that the existence of animals deemed threatened or endangered is less likely to derail logging proposals.

Just add it to the list: reassess green wedges for possible development, de-fund Environment Victoria to the tune of $1 million, let the cows back into our fragile Alpine National Park. With ''leadership'' like this, there's little hope for Victoria's environment with Ted in charge.

Loggers, activists clash over forest

2011-08-17T00:12:00.001+10:00

Adam Morton
The Age, August 17, 2011

CONSERVATIONISTS have held up timber workers in a fiercely contested area of native forest on Melbourne's fringe for nearly a month, chaining themselves to bulldozers and climbing trees scheduled for logging.

The protest, which has led to at least 10 arrests, is expected to reach a climax today as activists and local residents march into the logging coupe outside Toolangi in Victoria's central highlands.

Protest organisers claim they have evidence the coupe is home to the endangered Leadbeater's possum, which scientists say is under threat after Black Saturday bushfires wiped out up to half its habitat.

But the Department of Sustainability and Environment says there has been no sign of live possums.
Department spokeswoman Kim Payne said one tree in the coupe had hollows that showed evidence of possum use.

That tree would be left standing, but the coupe did not meet the legal criteria of prime possum habitat and could otherwise be logged.

Sarah Rees, director of Healesville-based group My Environment, said it was cruel to think a possum could be protected by retaining a single tree while taking away the forest around it.

She said logging was hurting central highlands communities.

''Tourism based on the state forest is far more important to the local economy than forestry and the two cannot co-exist,'' she said.

The conflict over the Toolangi State Forest was the focus of a public meeting in the area late last week when logging opponents verbally clashed with forestry workers, who accused the activists of restraint of trade. One contractor said he had lost about $80,000 due to the protests.

David Walsh, spokesman for state commercial timber agency VicForests, said the Toolangi protests had cost forest workers significant time.

Only about a quarter of the 19-hectare coupe had been harvested. He said gates raised to ensure public safety had been damaged. ''VicForests believes these are legal harvesting operations which comply with the detailed legislative framework governing native timber harvesting in Victoria,'' he said.

Threatened species yield ground to loggers

2011-08-17T00:09:00.000+10:00

Josh Gordon
The Age, August 17, 2011

VICTORIA'S old-growth forests could be opened to more logging under a state government plan to dilute environmental laws designed to protect threatened species.

The Age has learnt that the Department of Sustainability and Environment is quietly examining Victoria's 23-year-old Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act so that the existence of animals deemed threatened or endangered is less likely to derail logging proposals.

It follows a landmark Supreme Court ruling in August last year banning VicForests from logging old-growth forest at Brown Mountain in East Gippsland after an environment group produced video footage of an endangered long-footed potoroo in an area to be felled.

Senior department and government sources have confirmed the government wants to overhaul the act amid concerns that environment groups are becoming increasingly skillful at capturing footage of endangered species to thwart logging operations.

The department currently searches for threatened species only in areas earmarked for logging, leaving most of Victoria's old-growth forests unchecked. But under a proposal before cabinet, the department would undertake a more extensive survey of old-growth forests. The existence of endangered or threatened species in areas earmarked for logging would then be considered in a statewide context instead of automatically triggering the maximum level of vegetation protection.

Environment Minister Ryan Smith's office yesterday denied that the act - designed to protect flora and fauna from threatening processes - was being reviewed. But Mr Ryan's spokeswoman, Lauren Bradley, said the government reserved the right to review it.

''It is normal practice for government to review and update legislation,'' she said.

But parliamentary secretary for forestry Gary Blackwood, who has been driving the changes, confirmed the government intended to ''revisit or review'' the way the law applied to the management of threatened species.

''Bearing in mind that roughly 90 per cent of our threatened-species estate is locked up in park and reserve, and only 10 per cent is available for timber production, we think that if we do some work in the park then we may well find that these species aren't as rare as we might think, and therefore it might give us an opportunity to take pressure off areas set aside for timber production,'' he told The Age.

Mr Blackwood has been appointed chairman of a native forest taskforce by Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh. The recommendations of the taskforce are being considered by cabinet and are likely to be made public soon.

Wilderness Society campaigner Luke Chamberlain said the proposed change showed the government saw biodiversity as a problem that got in the way of its logging program.

''This is further evidence that we have a government-sanctioned rogue industry that cares nothing for native wildlife,'' he said. ''The government cares more about feeding woodchip mills for Reflex paper than it does about endangered species facing extinction.''

Victorian National Parks Association executive director Matt Ruchel said the flora and fauna guarantee already provided only a minimum of protection. ''Where is the transparency in terms of an exhaustive public consultation process?'' he said.

Victorian Association of Forest Industries chief executive Lisa Marty said various reviews had highlighted the need for better information and monitoring of threatened species.

With ADAM MORTON

Giant ‘No Harvey Norman No!’ banner unfurled in the midst of Tasmanian forest destruction

2011-08-15T17:35:00.000+10:00

MEDIA ALERT
Monday 15 August 2011

This morning, 25 activists are unfurling a giant banner in a 72ha clearfell logging coupe in Tasmania’s south to protest retailer Harvey Norman’s continued sale of wood products sourced from native forests.

The banner, which states ‘No Harvey Norman No! Don’t buy forest destruction!’, is one of the largest banners ever unfurled in Australia, measuring 60 x 18 metres.

‘Harvey Norman continues to profit from the destruction of Australia’s spectacular native forests. Today, we are sending a very clear message from the decimated forest floor and unfurling this massive banner to show the Australian people where their furniture is coming from’ said Ula Majewski, spokesperson for The Last Stand.

Recently, Harvey Norman has been the focus of numerous campaign activities by different groups around Australia. A viral video parodying a Harvey Norman ad, which was released by Markets for Change and GetUp!, has received 100,000+ hits on YouTube.

Peaceful actions in Harvey Norman stores have been happening all across the country over the last few weeks, including Melbourne, Sydney, Nowra, Hobart and Launceston.

‘This charred scene of forest devastation here in Southern Tasmania stands as a stark symbol of the industrial scale logging operations that are ripping apart Australia’s native forests every single day. Harvey Norman needs to stand up, show some genuine environmental leadership and stop selling native forest products to the Australian people’ said Ms Majewski.

The Last Stand will hold a press conference at 2pm at Parliament Lawns Hobart.

High quality aerial and ground vision and stills will be available.

For comment, contact:

Ula Majewski 0413 732 946 (Ula will be onsite at the action until 10:30, in Hobart after midday)
Nicola Paris 0422 990 040

Wood would do what it does best - store carbon

2011-08-14T11:42:00.000+10:00

JULIEANNE STRACHAN
Canberra Times, 14 Aug, 2011

AUSTRALIA may finally be in a position to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to logging and native forests, Australian National University professor of environmental sciences Brendan Mackey said yesterday.
He was among the leading science minds who gathered in Canberra for Australia's Forests and Climate Forum.

The event followed the publication of major findings about the value of forests as carbon sinks in the journal Science last month.

Professor Mackey told the Sunday Canberra Times Australia's plantation resources had matured and should be able to replace native forests as the source of timber.

"There has been very significant investment in plantations over the past few decades and that wood has started to come online which allows us to take pressure off native forests," he said.

"We have enough coming from plantations to meet the needs of industry and we are in a position to re-evaluate what we do with our forests.?? The report in Science, which was co-written by CSIRO researcher Pep Canadell, stated that the world?s established forests removed 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon per year from the atmosphere.

Dr Canadell said scientists had previously thought the figure was much lower.

"We can make huge savings in climate change mitigation by leaving forests in the ground," he said.

"These findings have shown us that forests are very large carbon sinks."

The former chairman of Australian Ethical Investments, actuary Naomi Edwards, said logging plantation timber was far more profitable than cutting down native forests.

"People tend to assume we trash our native forests because we make a lot of money out of it," she said.

"But that's not the case.

"The only state forestry corporation that makes money from logging is South Australia because they have no native forest logging.

"It is only plantation."

ANU economist Judith Ajani said it was up to government to ensure Australia stopped logging native forests and fully moved to plantation resources.

"Australian forests should be retired from wood production because of the size of plantation resources and it's a wonderful opportunity to let them do what they do best, which is to store carbon," she said.

"This is a serious government leadership issue and it's only government that can do this job."

End logging to cut carbon: study

2011-08-11T18:47:00.002+10:00

ROSSLYN BEEBY, SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
The Canberra Times, 11 Aug, 2011 04:00 AM

Australia could meet almost half of its 5 per cent greenhouse reduction target by ending logging of native forests, according to a new economic study.

The report, by Australian National University climate law expert Andrew Macintosh, estimates ending logging would generate enough carbon credits to meet 45 per cent of Australia’s emissions reduction target. In order to meet the 5 per target, Australia will need to reduce its carbon emissions by 152 million tonnes by 2020.

“It’s one of the fastest and cheapest ways for Australia to cut its emissions,” Mr Macintosh said.

The ANU study is the first to calculate the potential carbon credits Australia could generate over the next eight years by reducing, or ending, native forest harvesting.

It found keeping native forest harvesting at current levels would generate credits equivalent to 12million tonnes of carbon, or 14 per cent of Australia’s total abatement target.

Reducing harvesting to 50 per cent below 2002-09 average levels would generate credits worth 19 million tonnes, or 22 per cent of the 5 per cent target. “These are substantial figures, but the critical policy question is whether this is the most cost-effective way for Australia to meet its mitigation target,” Mr Macintosh said.

According to the study, native forests are “now responsible for only a minority of wood production”, with harvesting falling by 41 per cent from 11 million cubic metres a year to 6.5 million.

The study comes as a $276 million Tasmania forestry deal signed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Tasmania’s Premier Lara Giddings continues to meet opposition from business, industry and environmental groups.

The package offers $85 million to support forestry workers and their families affected by a plan to protect 430,000ha of high conservation forests as reserves or national parks.

The Federal Government will provide $43 million to manage these areas, and $120 million will be allocated to establish new industries, such as forestry tourism, in affected towns.

Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Robert Wallace has dismissed the deal as pandering to Greens voters “in the trendy cafes of Melbourne and Sydney”.

“If we had to live on forest tourism income alone, we would be poorer than Papua New Guineans. Tasmania does have a great future in tourism, but not at the expense of other industries and opportunities,” he said.

Tasmania’s acting Premier Bryan Green said yesterday the state Government would not be swayed by “vested political interests” trying to undermine the agreement.

Mr Green said the agreement would allow those workers affected by the timber market downturn and a recent decision by Tasmanian timber company Gunns to quit native forest harvesting “to leave the industry with dignity”.

He said the Government would restructure the state’s forestry industry and use federal funds to benefit regional communities.

“There are forest workers counting on the Government to deliver this agreement and we will not let them down,” he said.

Meacher vows further protests

2011-08-10T16:21:00.000+10:00

Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader, 10 August 2011

A PROMINENT Healesville environmentalist has vowed not to let criminal charges deter him from fighting logging in Toolangi.

Steve Meacher, who ran as the Greens’ candidate in McEwen at the 2010 federal election, was one of three protesters arrested early last week for entering a logging exclusion zone at Sylvia Creek.

He told the Leader he plans on contesting the charge of entering a designated public safety zone.

“We believe it’s the logging that is illegal,” Mr Meacher said.

“This is not going to deter me in the least. Only stopping logging will deter me.

“And it’s not just me and a couple of radical greenies in this fight. Toolangi residents are incensed at what’s happening on their doorstep.”

A series of public meetings has been held, attracting an estimated 100 people, with another meeting planned for Thursday, August 11, at the CJ Dennis Hall.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment confirmed two people were charged on Monday, August 1, as 13 were escorted from the public safety zone. Three protesters were arrested.

A tree sitter was removed later that day from a 40m perch. However, days later a second person climbed a tree to again impede logging efforts.

VicForests spokesman David Walsh said protesters who illegally entered the public safety zone had endangered themselves as well as contract staff working in the area.

“It is important to note that these are legal harvesting operations which comply with the detailed legislative framework governing native timber harvesting in Victoria,” he said.

“No forest which meets the criteria for Leadbeater’s possum habitat and no old growth forest were ever planned for harvest as part of these operations.”

Ironically, former Liberal candidate for the seat of McEwen, police officer Cameron Caine, was at the scene as Mr Meacher was arrested and charged last week.

Treasury officials to front timber inquiry

2011-08-04T00:32:00.000+10:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), August 03, 2011

Treasury officials will face a South Australian parliamentary inquiry today on the planned forward sale of forest timber in the south-east.

There was a hearing at Mount Gambier recently at which former forests minister Rory McEwen said the decision to sell more than a century's worth of harvesting rights had been made by Treasury zealots.

Inquiry chairman, MP Rob Brokenshire, said Treasury's motivations would be forensically examined at the Adelaide hearing.

"Have they factored in the fact that Forestry SA really still is the foundation of all forestry activities, particularly in the south-east?" he asked.

"There are questions around how they're going to manage the rest of the forests in the mid-north, in the Adelaide Hills etcetera because they were really underpinned again by the strength of forestry in Mount Gambier.

"The Government have said that they're going ahead no matter what, but of course I think that would be a very dangerous move if the evidence of the committee does come out that shows overwhelmingly that it's in the best interests of the state not to sell."

Greens demand action on Sumatra logging claims

2011-08-03T12:36:00.001+10:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 3 August 2011

The Greens say the ACCC needs to investigate whether paper products being sold in Australian stores are the result of logging in Indonesian forests.

The ABC's Foreign Correspondent program last night aired claims Sumatran rainforests are being cleared by Asia Pacific Resources, which runs the world's largest paper mill.

Greens Leader Bob Brown says Australian consumers need to know if they are being hoodwinked.

"I'll be referring the program to the ACCC to investigate the claims that there is labelling on this paper from rainforest destruction in Indonesia claiming it to be coming from plantations," he said.

Senator Brown says the Federal Government should ask the Indonesian government for an explanation of the widespread logging.

He says the logging was supposed to have been stopped.

"The Howard Government, with high publicity, gave $200 million of taxpayers' money to Indonesia to stop this logging of the rainforests," he said.

"But in fact what we saw on Foreign Correspondent is a broad-scale destruction of some of the most important wildlife habitat on the face of the planet."

Sumatra - Paper/Tiger

2011-08-02T12:41:00.000+10:00

Foreign Correspondent - ABC, Broadcast: 02/08/2011

One respected authority who’s seen it first-hand doesn’t mince his words. The rate and scale of forest clearing in Sumatra by big paper producers approaches ecological Armageddon.

“I thought I’d seen, you know, impressive deforestation in the Amazon and parts of Africa. But what’s happening there (Sumatra) on a large industrial scale is pretty daunting …some of the worst forest destruction I’ve ever seen anywhere.” BILL LAURANCE Forest Scientist

Riau province in Sumatra is home to the world’s biggest paper plant. It’s owned and run by Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd, better known by the more disarming acronym APRIL. The company has embarked on a massive land clearing project, removing natural stands of timber and replanting fast-growing acacia trees and when it’s done it says the plantation timber alone will feed the plant. APRIL describes this program as sustainable and certainly preferable to the ad hoc land clearing and burning which blights so much of the Indonesia archipelago.

“We’re doing it in a responsible way in line with what the Indonesian government wants to promote as part of developing forestry and if we don’t do it the way we’re doing it, it can be even worse.” DAVID KERR Director of Operations, APRIL

As the carbon debate rages in Australia, Indonesia correspondent Matt Brown ventures into the rapidly diminishing Sumatran jungle, destruction adding dramatically to Indonesia’s greenhouse gas outputs and catapulting the nation high up the list of the world’s worst emitters.

Foreign Correspondent focuses on the activities of APRIL in Riau province where its gargantuan development has led to a bustling town of 250,000 people, many working for and benefitting from APRIL’s plantation and factory. It produces office paper sold by some of Australia’s largest retailers.

But our team explores beyond what APRIL proffers as a model development, to investigate claims of corruption in a nearby area where logging companies appear to have bribed their way into operation. An APRIL subsidiary has been implicated in a paper trail leading to a powerful local political figure now in jail for accepting bribes in return for production permits.

And we investigate the implications of major plantation and milling development on Sumatra’s sensitive and carbon-loaded peat beds. As the bulldozers move through the peat beds, peat dries in the sun and enormous clouds of greenhouse gas are expelled into the atmosphere.

Environmentalists and many villagers worry about the dramatic changes reshaping the land and also about the plight of residents who’ve been there a lot longer than most - like the Sumatran tiger.

“It breaks my heart because they have a right to live here and they’re even here before us, but people just keep taking so much from them. I feel really sorry for the tigers because there will be more forests destroyed.” KARMILA PARAKKASIA WWF

Further Information

As part of our investigation we sought input from two major companies who sell and distribute APRIL paper in Australia. We asked Officeworks and Fuji Xerox to answer a number of questions. Officeworks hasn’t responded, but here’s what Fuji Xerox had to say.

Protesters blockade government offices

2011-08-01T12:25:00.000+10:00

Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August 2011

Environmental protesters have partially blocked government offices in north-west Sydney over the logging of native forests on the NSW south coast.

Several members of South East Forest Rescue (SEFR) scaled 25-metre trees in the Cumberland State Forest, near Pennant Hills, this morning and unfurled a banner reading "carbon criminals".

Other members of the group blocked vehicular access to nearby NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) offices by tying cables around gates, SEFR spokeswoman Lisa Stone said.

A DPI spokesman told AAP: "Protesters have blocked most vehicle access to Cumberland State Forest.

"Staff are at work and it is business as normal."

Ms Stone said protesters were equipped with supplies and might remain in the trees for several days.

SEFR is demanding meetings with NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson and federal Environment Minister Tony Burke to discuss alleged native logging licence breaches.

"Millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions are released into the atmosphere from the logging on the south coast," Ms Stone said.

SEFR is also concerned about the effect that logging may have on protected species and believe the practice is unsustainable.

Police were called to the entrance of the DPI building in Oratava Avenue just before 7am and remain at the scene.

There were no reports of any arrests.

AAP

Koalas suffering from logging: inquiry

2011-08-01T10:49:00.000+10:00

The Age, August 1, 2011 - 5:16PM

A Victorian population of koalas is being threatened by logging, a Senate inquiry has heard.

Friends of the Earth is calling for the Strzelecki koala to be recognised as a threatened species because its natural food source is being eroded.

Land use researcher Anthony Amis from Friends of the Earth says mountain ash trees felled in the Strzelecki Ranges in South Gippsland are being replaced by shining gums in plantation areas after harvest.

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"Mountain ash is a koala feed source, shining gum is not," Mr Amis told the hearing today.

A significant number of koalas in the region also died in the Black Saturday bushfires and many of the animals continued to suffer stress-related conditions from the fires, the inquiry heard.

"It is probably beyond the ability of our environment groups to pull together the best science in Australia to save this animal," Friends of the Earth said in its submission to the inquiry.

"It would probably require several hundred thousand dollars and a dedicated team to properly understand what is happening on the ground with this animal."

The Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications is examining the status, health and sustainability of Australia's koala population.

Asked by Senator Doug Cameron whether forestry and koalas could co-exist, Mr Amis said: "In a dream they probably could.

"I think if you had minimal logging, say took out a couple of trees per hectare, potentially it could work.

"But the demands of industry are to knock out entire catchment areas."

Hancock Victorian Plantations chief executive Linda Sewell said the company, which operates about 45,000 hectares of plantation forest in the Strzelecki Ranges, provides corridors for koala movement to native areas.

Ms Sewell said an operating standard requires workers to conduct a "visual" assessment of any koalas before logging periods, and if koalas are found during harvesting, operations are temporarily suspended while koalas move through the logging area.

The committee is due to report to the findings of the inquiry by August 24.

AAP

Tree-sitter takes fight for rare possum to new heights

2011-07-26T14:27:00.001+10:00

Adam Carey
The Age, July 26, 2011

A FIGHT to end logging in native forests in Victoria's central highlands has intensified, with conservationists entering a patch of forest they claim is habitat to the endangered Leadbeater's possum and forcing a halt to work there.
Dozens of demonstrators entered a logging coupe on Sylvia Creek Road in the Toolangi State Forest yesterday morning, where a lone protester has stationed himself high in the forest canopy in a move to stall timber harvesting.

Police made no move to evict the "tree-sitter" from his perch yesterday, leaving him huddled in a sleeping bag 50 metres above ground on the edge of a patch of freshly clear-felled forest. Long ropes were strung from the tree trunk to the loggers' bulldozers, which sat idle in the coupe below.

A VicForests worker approached the protesters and asked them to leave the area, but they refused.

"This is one of the few areas that wasn't burnt on Black Saturday … so it's really important to all of us standing here that it is preserved for our children and for the habitat," Karina Doughty of local action group Warburton Environment said.
VicForests, the Victorian government's commercial forestry arm, began logging 19 hectares of forest at Sylvia Creek Road last Friday.

It had planned to log 22 hectares, but cut the coupe's size after the Department of Sustainability and Environment found it contained old-growth forest last week.

Senior VicForests employee Stuart O'Brien told demonstrators the coupe was part of a mixed-age forest that contained only a handful of old-growth, hollow-bearing trees. Those trees would be preserved, he said. "We've done pretty extensive surveying here and we've excluded about three hectares where those old-growth trees are," Mr O'Brien said.

A key aim of the protesters is the preservation of the remaining habitat of the Leadbeater's possum, which is endemic to the central highlands. About 1000 of the animals are believed to exist today after as much as half of its habitat was wiped out in the Black Saturday bushfires.

VicForests is prohibited from logging hollow-bearing trees under a Department of Sustainability and Environment plan to protect the endangered possum's habitat, but conservationists say the plan is inadequate.

"So much of the forest has been so heavily hit by fires and also by past logging that the amount of habitat for Leadbeater's possum is really vanishing very quickly," Australian National University ecologist David Lindenmayer said.

Is the Tasmanian Forest Deal a Dud?

2011-07-25T13:57:00.000+10:00

Media Release
Prue Acton and Noel Plumb, South East Region Conservation Alliance, 25 July 2011

The South East Forests Cannot Wait Any Longer

The South East Region Conservation Alliance has said that it doubts the announcement of $250 million for forest conservation in Tasmania is sustainable, politically or environmentally.

“Sadly, it looks as though it is a dud that will cause the Gillard Government enormous political pain,” said Prue Acton and Noel Plumb, spokespersons for the South East Region Conservation Alliance (SERCA).

“We can no longer be confident that reform of the Tasmanian logging industry will be a blueprint to protect the South East Forests (covering the NSW south coast and Victoria’s East Gippsland), the critical next step in forest protection around Australia.”

“We are deeply disappointed that this deal does not clearly set out a quick and certain path to end native forest logging in Tasmania and elsewhere. It does not even stop the present targeted destruction of high conservation value forests identified by scientists and the community.”

“This looks like another massive waste of taxpayer’s money, prolonging the death throes of an unsustainable industry rejected by most Australians. (Galaxy Poll May 2010)”

“The money, part of more than one billion dollars announced in the Clean Energy Future policy just two weeks ago to protect biodiversity and carbon stores, needs to be used to genuinely protect forests, not to prop up a doomed woodchip driven industry. Saving forests, not destroying them, is the most cost effective way to reduce Australia’s carbon emissions and save our wildlife.”

“The Gillard Government now needs to urgently intervene to stop the woodchip monster that is eating the South East Forests as well as fixing up the dud deal in Tasmania.”

“We are calling on Prime Minister Gillard to immediately engage the NSW and Victorian Governments on the protection of the South East Forests.”

“The critical role of native forests in protecting biodiversity and fighting climate change has been highlighted by scientists around the world”

“ Yet, at this very minute, intensive logging is threatening to wipe out the last coastal koala population on the NSW south coast and is simultaneously threatening the future of tourism based on Australia’s ‘Wilderness Coast’ stretching from Bermagui to Bairnsdale in Victoria. (See below) “

“The once mighty spotted gum forests of Bermagui, home to the last coastal koalas, are being destroyed right now for export woodchips to Japan. For years the local community has begged the Federal and NSW Government to protect this forest and the those of Mumbulla, Tathra, Tanja, Murrah and Gulaga as home to the last south coast koala colony, with no more than 50 koalas left.”

“Lying at the northern entrance to Australia’s wilderness coast, recently declared by Martin Ferguson as an international tourism landscape, these forests are also winter feeding grounds of the last remaining Swift Parrots. The parrots and our coastal koalas are both on the knife edge of extinction.”

For further comment: -

Prue Acton SERCA 02 6494 5144 or 0419 393 203
Noel Plumb ChipBusters 0425 23 83 03

Tasmania in $274m forests deal

2011-07-25T07:59:00.001+10:00

Andrew Darby, Hobart
The Age, July 25, 2011

PEACE is closer to being secured in the decades-long fight over Tasmanian forests after a $274 million government package aimed at ending most logging of native forests was agreed on at the weekend.

But while the deal hammered out between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings has the full backing of industry, it has been criticised by the Greens.

The deal puts into effect principles already agreed on by the two sides to shift the industry out of most public native forests, to protect many of those forests in national parks, and to compensate those forced to leave.

Tasmania's forests debate has been a defining national green issue since the 1980s, marked by repeated attempts at settlement that have only bought temporary truces.

Ms Gillard said the conflict had at times been "very bitter indeed", but the deal would ensure complete agreement could be be reached, she said.

Changing commercial conditions — chiefly the rejection of native forest woodchips by the Japanese — drove the industry and green groups into talks.

The package confirms the reservation of 430,000 hectares of native forest around the state.

Among areas protected will be the hotly disputed very tall forests that fringe the World Heritage wilderness, the Tarkine rainforests of the island's north-west, and a sprinkling of mountainous coastal forests around the east coast.

"People do want to see appropriate protection for ancient and iconic forests, for areas of high conservation value, and the agreement that has been struck . . . does enable us to do it," Ms Gillard said.

With the lion's share of funds to come from the Commonwealth, the package's big ticket items are $85 million for workers and contractors who lose their jobs in industry restructuring; $120 million in extra regional development money for Tasmania; and $43 million to implement the changes.

The deal ensures existing major logging contracts can be fulfilled from forests outside the protected areas, but halves the key sawlog quota.

The strategically important Triabunna woodchip mill, bought by the wealthy environmentalists Jan Cameron and Graeme Wood last week, is to keep operating.

But its chips will need certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, which means an end to the mass woodchipping of old-growth areas.

Ms Giddings called for an end to environmental protests targeting the industry, saying the agreement marked an end to debate over logging in old-growth forests. "It is clear that against the tide of changing market conditions, doing nothing is not an option," she said.

The Forest Industries Association of Tasmania said the deal delivered it certainty and security. "We do fully support the agreement," chief executive Terry Edwards said.

Green groups said they backed the governments' decision to reach an important decision. But one of the negotiators, Phill Pullinger of Environment Tasmania, said critical points still lay ahead in translating the weekend's federal-state heads of agreement into a fully operational process.

The Tasmanian Greens, who hold the balance of power in the state's Parliament, reserved the right not to support some elements of the agreement, which may need to be legislated.

And national Greens leader Bob Brown derided the agreement as a "Labor-Labor-loggers" outcome. "The popular expectation that a 610,000-hectare system of wild forest national parks would be established, as the loggers were bailed out of their failing industry, has been dashed," Senator Brown said.

PM signs historic forest peace deal

2011-07-24T23:27:00.000+10:00

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), July 24, 201

The latest attempt at a peace deal for Tasmania's forests has been agreed to by both the Tasmanian and Federal Government.

Industry has backed the plan, but it has already been rejected by the Greens at both a state and federal level.

It comes after nine months of negotiations between conservation groups and the forest industry.

The agreement effectively halves the Tasmanian timber industry and moves it almost out of native forest logging.

The package highlights are:

$85 million in immediate assistance to forest workers and contractors to exit the industry permanently.
$120 million over 15 years will be provided for regional development projects to diversify the Tasmanian economy.
$43 million will be given to the State to buy back native wood contracts, which would include Gunns.
430,000 hectares of native forest is to be put into informal reserves protected from logging.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard signed the historic heads of agreement with Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings in Hobart today.

"We have put cold hard cash on the table to get it done," Ms Gillard said.

"This is a very significant step forward in a process that is aimed at trying to end the conflict that has caused so much conflict, for so many, for decades in this State," Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings said.

Ms Giddings has until the end of the year to verify and protect 430,000 hectares of native forest from logging, which will be placed in an informal reserve immediately.

"As Prime Minister I've always said I'm all about jobs and this is about supporting jobs in Tasmania. But it is also about securing an environmental outcome," Ms Giddings said.

The deal has been forced on the industry because its markets have collapsed.

A decade-long campaign by conservationists aimed at international woodchip buyers started the rot and the global financial crisis brought the industry to its knees.

At the same time the biggest industry player - Gunns - decided to get out of native forest logging to win approval for the Tamar Valley pulp mill which will take plantation timber.

"What is fundamentally different here is this isn't Government telling people what to do. This is stakeholders coming together recognising that the industry has changed," Ms Gillard said.

The negotiations failed to mandate how long the strategically important Triabunna woodchip mill should keep operating.

Conservationists and industry are yet to sign the deal, that should be done within two weeks.

The Greens have rejected the package.

"This is not an agreement that we will go along with. It gives $148 million to the loggers in the financial year but does not permanently protect 1 hectare of what the Prime Minister calls ancient and iconic forests," Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said.

Senator Christine Milne says the agreement sells out the public expectation that there would be a breakthrough in the 30-year conflict.

"That opportunity has now been squandered. Appeasement as a strategy has never worked and it won't work in this case and now it's going to be over to the market," she said.

The Wilderness Society which was a key player in the peace talks says it supports the compensation package and will work to make sure the forests are protected.

"It is our intention to be sure that the detail that still needs to be worked through to end up in the actual inter-governmental agreement provides for the protection of the forests," campaigner Vica Bayley said.

The timber industry says it is a compromise driven by necessity.

"I don't think there's anyone that will say they got everything that they wanted. It's been a genuine negotiation process and like any negotiation process there's had to be some compromise," the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania chief executive, Terry Edwards said.

But industry wants one further guarantee.

"That there will be peace in our forests and in our markets as a result of this agreement."

Anger as logging begins at controversial Sylvia Creek forest near Melbourne

2011-07-22T22:59:00.004+10:00

MEDIA RELEASE
Friday, 22 July 2011

VicForests has sent the chainsaws into the Sylvia Creek forest on Melbourne’s north east fringe, despite conceding that the area contains old-growth trees more than 110 years old.

Over 100 people protested at the site near Toolangi last weekend, forcing both VicForests and the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) to conduct new surveys to check the forest’s environmental values.

“DSE has confirmed the logging coupe contains old growth trees, even though VicForests and Government Minister Louise Asher insisted last week that it was not old growth forest,” said Wilderness Society forest campaigner Luke Chamberlain.

"We demand an acknowledgment from the then Acting Premier that she has either been deceived by VicForests or she herself has misled the public. Louise Asher must apologise to the people of Toolangi."

“As a result of community action, VicForests has been forced to remove three hectares of old growth and rainforest from their logging plans, but they have sent the chainsaws into the remaining forest today.”

DSE and VicForests claim that the area being logged is not suitable habitat for the endangered Leadbeater's Possum, but expert scientists and conservationists disagree.

“Over half the Leadbeater's Possum’s forest habitat was destroyed in the Black Saturday bushfires, so every last bit that survives is incredibly precious, and essential to this tiny animals’ survival,” said spokesperson for local group ‘My Environment’ Sarah Rees.

“The criteria the government is using to identify Leadbeater's Possum habitat are too conservative. We’re talking about Victoria’s wildlife emblem, we should be making sure they multiply and flourish, not simply cling on to the edge of survival.”

“The local community is up in arms about losing this beautiful, high conservation value forest, and is planning further protests.”

The Burned Area Emergency Response Report (BAER) commissioned by the Brumby Government after the 2009 bushfires recommended preserving refuge areas such as those in Toolangi for biodiversity recovery.

Note: photos of Leadbeater's Possum available on request

For comment

- Luke Chamberlain, The Wilderness Society 0424 098 729
- Sarah Rees, My Environment Inc. 0438 368 870

Forests soak up third of fossil fuel emissions: study

2011-07-17T09:49:00.000+10:00

Marlowe Hood (AFP)
Via Google News, 15 July 2011

PARIS — Forests play a larger role in Earth's climate system than previously suspected for both the risks from deforestation and the potential gains from regrowth, a benchmark study released Thursday has shown.

The study, published in Science, provides the most accurate measure so far of the amount of greenhouse gases absorbed from the atmosphere by tropical, temperate and boreal forests, researchers said.
"This is the first complete and global evidence of the overwhelming role of forests in removing anthropogenic carbon dioxide," said co-author Josep Canadell, a scientist at CSIRO, Australia's national climate research centre in Canberra.

"If you were to stop deforestation tomorrow, the world's established and regrowing forests would remove half of fossil fuel emissions," he told AFP, describing the findings as both "incredible" and "unexpected".
Wooded areas across the planet soak up fully a third of the fossil fuels released into the atmosphere each year, some 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon, the study found.

At the same time, the ongoing and barely constrained destruction of forests -- mainly in the tropics -- for food, fuel and development was shown to emit 2.9 billion tonnes of carbon annually, more than a quarter of all emissions stemming from human activity.

Up to now, scientists have estimated that deforestation accounted for 12 to 20 percent of total greenhouse gas output.

The big surprise, said Canadell, was the huge capacity of tropical forests that have regenerated after logging or slash-and-burn land clearance to purge carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

"We estimate that tropical forest regrowth is removing an average of 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon each year," he said in an e-mail exchange.

Adding up the new figures reveals that all the world's forests combined are a net "sink", or sponge, for 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of 13 percent of all the coal, oil land gas burned across the planet annually.

"That's huge. These are 'savings' worth billions of euros a year if that quantity had to be paid out by current mitigation (CO2 reduction) strategies or the price of carbon in the European market," Canadell said.
The international team of climate scientists combined data -- covering the period 1990 through 2007 -- from forests inventories, climate models and satellites to construct a profile of the role global forests have played as regulators of the atmosphere.

In terms of climate change policy, the study has two critically important implications, said Canadell.
The fact that previous science underestimated both the capacity of woodlands to remove CO2, and the emissions caused by deforestation, means that "forests are even more at the forefront as a strategy to protect our climate", he said.

It also follows that forests should play a larger role in emerging carbon markets, he added.
"The amount of saving which are up for grabs is very large, certainly larger than what we thought," Canadell said.

The UN-backed scheme known as REDD -- Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation -- allots credit to tropical countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa that slow rates of forest destruction.
It also provides a mechanism for rich countries to offset their own carbon-reduction commitments by investing in that process.

Two decades was not enough to discern possible long-term trends due to year-on-year variability due to fluctuations in weather, insect attacks and other factors.
But the tropics did show a clear decline in the capacity to soak up CO2 due to a so-called "once-in-a-century" drought in Amazonia in 2005.

The region suffered an even worse drought in 2010, beyond the time frame of the study.
The breakdown over the last decade for CO2 removal was 1.8 billion tonnes each year for boreal forests at high latitudes, 2.9 billion for temperate forests, and 3.7 billion for tropical forests.

Once deforestation and regrowth are taken into account, however, tropical forests have been essentially carbon neutral.

Wilderness wolf dons woodchipper's clothing

2011-07-16T22:40:00.000+10:00

Andrew Darby, Hobart,
The Age, July 16, 2011

A CONTROVERSIAL former head of the Tasmanian Wilderness Society has been hired to run a strategic woodchip mill bought by two wealthy environmentalists.

Wotif founder Graeme Wood and Kathmandu creator Jan Cameron have hired green hard man Alec Marr to manage the Triabunna mill, which chipped millions of old growth trees he had tried to save.

As general manager, Mr Marr will negotiate on behalf of the pair, who with their surprise $10 million purchase have dealt themselves in on historic peace talks on native forest logging.

Once the chief defendant in a civil prosecution launched by Triabunna's seller, Gunns, and forced out of the Wilderness Society last September in a power struggle, Mr Marr's choice amazed industry observers.

''Alec Marr is going to be a woodchipper?'' said Timber Communities Australia state manager, Barry Chipman. ''It is probably a fitting way to end a bizarre week.''

Senior Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz said: ''This is Green cronyism and triumphalism at its ugliest.''

Mr Marr declined to comment, but Mr Wood said Mr Marr's personal views of the timber industry would not matter. ''His job is to implement the Forest Statement of Principles, and to work with all industry players to reopen the mill,'' Mr Wood told The Saturday Age.

Green and industry groups have been in talks for more than a year in an effort to end 25 years of conflict.

In their latest deal they agreed to protect up to 430,000 hectares of Tasmania's public native forest, but still operate some sawlog and veneer mills.

Woodchips are claimed to be crucial secondary income for the surviving timber operations, and the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania wants Triabunna to keep chipping until at least 2027. The association's chief executive, Terry Edwards, warned that if the mill was not kept open, the industry would not be able to back the deal.

But with Japanese export markets increasingly rejecting native forest chips, Triabunna, on the state's east coast, was shut by Gunns and its last 120,000 tonnes sold to China at a discount.

When it reopens under new ownership, contentious timber is unlikely to enter its gates.

Mr Wood said his original view was that the chip mill should operate for three to five years before the site was turned into a tourist development.

''Having spoken to government people, that may have to go out,'' he said. ''But there is no way of knowing that until we have detailed discussions.''

Now Mr Marr, a blunt and at times abrasive negotiator deeply experienced in dealing with government and industry, will be leading those talks.

Mr Wood tried to reassure local people that the new owners of the mill wanted to build a strong future beyond the woodchipping of native forests. ''There are not any simple problems in the world,'' he said. ''They are all complex, and they can all be resolved.

''Our longer-term goal is to look at regional development and fit in with that. We believe Triabunna will be good for tourism and wine, and it's an early starter with the [national broadband network] NBN. Plus it's a lovely part of the world.''

Tree saviour named as Tasmanian mill boss

2011-07-16T22:37:00.002+10:00

Andrew Darby, Hobart
The Age, 16 July 2011

About turn … Alec Marr will run Triabunna woodchip mill. Photo: Jason South
TASMANIA'S forest industry, still reeling from the sale of a strategic woodchip mill to two environmentalists, has been shocked to learn who will run it - the green hard man Alec Marr.

The Wotif founder, Graeme Wood, and the Kathmandu creator, Jan Cameron, have hired Mr Marr, a former Wilderness Society boss, to manage the Triabunna mill that chipped millions of old-growth trees he tried to save.

As their general manager, Mr Marr will negotiate on behalf of the pair who, with their surprise $10 million buy, dealt themselves into historic peace talks on native forest logging.

Advertisement: Story continues below
Once chief defendant in a civil prosecution launched by the seller of Triabunna, Gunns, and forced out of the Wilderness Society, Mr Marr's selection amazed industry observers.

''Alec Marr is going to be a woodchipper?'' the Timber Communities Australia state manager, Barry Chipman, said. ''It is probably a fitting way to end a bizarre week.''

The Liberal senator Eric Abetz said it was ''Green cronyism and triumphalism at its ugliest''.

Mr Marr declined to comment but Mr Wood said Mr Marr's personal views of the timber industry would not matter.

''His job is to implement the forest statement of principles and to work with all industry players to re-open the mill.''

Green and industry groups have been in talks for more than a year to craft the statement of principles and end 25 years of conflict. Their latest deal agreed to protect up to 430,000 hectares of Tasmania's public native forest but still operate some sawlog and veneer mills.

Woodchips are claimed as crucial secondary income for the surviving timber operations, and the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania wants Triabunna to keep chipping until at least 2027.

The association's chief executive, Terry Edwards, warned that if the mill was not kept open, the industry would not be able to back the deal.

With Japanese export markets increasingly rejecting native forest chips, Gunns shut Triabunna in April. When it re-opens under new ownership, contentious timber is increasingly unlikely to enter its gates.

Mr Wood said his original view was that the chip mill should operate for three to five years before the site was turned into a tourist development.

''Having spoken to government people, that may have to go out,'' he said.

Now Mr Marr, a blunt and at times abrasive negotiator, will be leading further talks.

Mr Wood tried to reassure residents about a future beyond woodchipping. ''We believe Triabunna will be good for tourism and wine,'' he said.

Forests reality swayed Gunns

2011-07-16T22:34:00.000+10:00

Greg L'Estrange, Gunns Ltd
THE MERCURY, 16 July 2011

THERE is little point in the Tasmanian native forest industry crying that the sky will fall in because of Gunns' decision to sell the Triabunna sawmill to a non-industry investor.

The sky fell in probably two years ago. This is just the latest bit of debris to fall.

It shows that it is high time Tasmania came to grips with what Gunns has been saying for the past 18 months - that the industry in Tasmania needs significant structural change if there is to be a long-term future in native forestry.

It was a very difficult decision made by Gunns to sell an asset historically pivotal to southern Tasmania's native forest sector, and what has been the economic hub of the Triabunna community.

We gave Aprin time beyond the deadline, and worked hard with them to make it happen.

My first obligation is to Gunns' shareholders, and for reasons fair or foul Aprin could not get their finance in order in time. Aprin now knows what Gunns has known for some time.

Financial backers won't risk the pressure inflicted on them by interest groups, and why should they run that risk for an investment in a declining industry?

Whether we like it or not, native forestry in Tasmania is in serious trouble, and the negotiations over the forest principles are possibly the only way to soften the impact of that fallout.

It was on this basis that Gunns made a condition of sale to Triabunna Investments that the mill continue to operate as required for the Forest Principles Agreement to work. We insisted on this and it was accepted.

This was no sell-out of the industry.

We could have done that 12 months ago if we wished but we have worked tirelessly and consistently to try to achieve a successful outcome for the industry, consistent with the forest principles.

We marketed the sale of Triabunna to numerous customers and industry peers. There was no interest.

This was no backflip by Gunns. We have consistently stated that we are exiting from native forests and that we were working to achieve an orderly exit from our facilities in line with the forest principles.

And now, even in the absence of an industry operator to purchase Triabunna, we have still ensured an outcome consistent with those principles.

Industry signatories to the principles were consulted in relation to our decision to sell Triabunna to Jan Cameron and Graeme Wood. There was no resistance provided the facility had the opportunity to operate consistent with the principles.

That is what has been achieved.

We would hope that a successful implementation of the principles leads to a sustainable future for the Triabunna mill.

The success or failure of that now lies with the signatories of the principles and governments to implement.

It is difficult for all Tasmanians to see the harsh realities of a once proud industry on its last legs.

It is a reality that Gunns has had to face and which it has tried to soften in its actions to accelerate out of a fading industry and carve out a new future in plantation pulp production.

The linkage with the tactics of the environment groups also can't be ignored. They have influenced our customers and our funders.

There's no point crying foul. Gunns has just done what we have to do to get the business back on to a stable footing. That means a commitment to get out of native forestry.

We have honoured that commitment but worked to try to ensure an ongoing industry outcome for those that wish to continue in the native-based industries. And we will continue to do that.

Tasmania needs to imagine a future with not just a pulp mill, not just a national park and winery tourist industry, not just a world-class art gallery. It needs to work hard to broaden its economy and make it truly sustainable for years to come.

So I say to the industry, start some joint problem-solving.

Do this for the sake of the communities struggling to come to terms with unforgiving change.

They need your leadership now more than ever.

Marr to manage chip mill

2011-07-16T22:26:00.003+10:00

NICK CLARK
The Mercury, 16 July 2011

THE new owners of the Triabunna woodchip mill have appointed controversial former Wilderness Society executive director Alec Marr general manager of the venture.

Mr Marr has been prominent in the native forestry debate and recently fell out with the Wilderness Society after an annual meeting upset an opposing faction.

He was a member of the Wilderness Society for 30 years and set a tree-sitting record at Farmhouse Creek in 1986 before taking part in numerous protest campaigns.

Triabunna Investments director Graeme Wood said Mr Marr was chosen because of his intimate understanding and knowledge of Tasmania. "I think Alec has probably matured or changed his attitude since the implosion of the Wilderness Society," Mr Wood said.

"I think he probably sees the world slightly differently now.

"Here's his great opportunity to prove that this is the case.

"He understands and knows all of the people in the various groups.

"We would be hard pressed to come up with anyone else who had such an understanding of the issues."

Mr Wood said it was Mr Marr's responsibility to look at the investment from a non-partisan point of view.

"If he doesn't do that then he will lose his job," he said. "We needed somebody with their feet under the table now and we needed to keep the momentum going on this."

Logger blames Gunns for pain

2011-07-15T22:30:00.000+10:00

DANIELLE McKAY,
The Mercury, 15 July 2011

PROUD forestry operator Michael Woods is from a generation that does not ask for help.

Men like him just roll up their sleeves and get on with the job.

But having to sack his two sons from his log-harvesting business Eastern Tiers this year as the company that he built over two decades collapsed around him left the 52-year-old in a position he never thought possible.

"I'm seeing a psychologist to help me through it," he said.

"I'm a baby-boomer -- the generation raised on having a cup of concrete and hardening up if you're having a problem.

"But this, this is something different altogether. This is bloody hard."

Mr Woods's sons were forced to leave their Triabunna home, heading to the North-West where they found work.

Leaving the East Coast town is something Mr Woods said he is also forced to consider after Gunns announced it had sold its Triabunna woodchip mill to buyers with plans to transform it into a tourism hub.

Mr Woods said that after closing down his business he remained about $800,000 in debt, despite receiving an $815,000 exit package from the Federal Government to quit the haulage and harvesting sector and selling about $6 million worth of machinery.

"The future here is uncertain, working in Western Australia, in mining, is probably one of only a few options right now," he said.

"I'm selling scraps of firewood just to put bread and butter on the table, because the industry's been destroyed and with this sale of the mill the future's just too uncertain."

To say Mr Woods feels hatred for Gunns is an understatement.

With his teeth clenched he yesterday said he held them responsible for the collapse of his business, through painfully low payments and a sudden exit from native forests.

He also held them responsible for his family's pain with the uncertainty created through the sale of the Triabunna mill.

"What they've done, they've ruined me," he said.

"I'm 52, I've absolutely worked my butt off and created a business that's successful.

"We had a succession plan in place but one company, just one company, has ruined my life and my family's -- I'm not the only contractor who feels this way."

Mr Woods said financial worries and the town's uncertainty were affecting his daughter Hannah, 11.

"From a family's perspective it's terrible," he said. "My youngest, Hannah, was sitting on the jetty the other night writing a list of ideas of how to help Mummy and Daddy get money."

Mr Woods's wife, Glamorgan Spring Bay councillor Jenny Woods, said Hannah suggested she become a contestant on the TV game show Deal or No Deal.

"We have children who are suffering because of this deal," she said.

Forestry industry surprised by changes

2011-07-12T16:25:00.000+10:00

Ben Cubby
Sydney Morning Herald, July 12, 2011

BURNING native timber will no longer be counted as a form of renewable energy under the federal government's carbon price plan, leaving sections of the forestry industry in limbo.

The future of a proposed biomass power plant generating renewable energy certificates from burning woodchips at Eden, on the NSW south coast, is now uncertain.

The plant's operator, South-East Forest Exports, said it had received no hint of the decision before the plan was made public on Sunday.

The company had already lodged an environmental impact assessment for building the plant next to its woodchip mill, but now is unsure if it can recoup its costs.

''There's never been any discussion with the government; it came as a surprise to us,'' said a company spokesman, Vince Phillips. ''Mike Kelly is the local member and he has said he is right behind the industry. We believed him.''

The plant, to be built on Jews Head at Twofold Bay near Eden, was to have burned up to 51,000 tonnes of wood per year.

Green groups have long opposed the classification of timber as a source of renewable power, arguing that trees left growing in the ground are more effective carbon sinks than trees cut down and burned to create electricity.

The company was arguing, with the support of the state's forestry industry, that the wood offcuts not suitable for export could be used on the site to generate power, making use of material that would otherwise have decomposed, releasing carbon dioxide emissions for no financial gain.

Renewable energy certificates would be generated in the process, and these could then be sold on to energy suppliers.

But that has now been ruled out by an amendment to the renewable energy target regulations in the government's new carbon legislation.

''In some cases the wood will still get burned for energy, in other cases it will decompose, or we would sell it for landscaping,'' Mr Phillips said. ''We could go ahead with the plant anyway and not generate [renewable energy certificates], we could run it off plantation timber - those are the options.''

The Australian Forest Products Association said many commercial forestry operations were unfairly excluded from the new carbon plan and the government's Carbon Farming Initiative. There should be recognition of the carbon stored in products made from timber, the association said.

The Wilderness Society said the amendment of the renewable energy target was a recognition that logging should not be justified as a source of fuel for power stations.

''For us, this is an anomaly that has been sitting in the system now for about eight years,'' the society's national campaign director, Lyndon Schneiders, said.

''These biomass plants are really a last-ditch attempt by the native forest logging industry to hold themselves up, because their ability to export woodchips is drying up.''

Anti-woodchipping group ChipBusters said it was a setback for the industry, but was dismayed there was not more recognition of the carbon sequestration potential of forests.

"Why tax other big carbon polluters but not the woodchip industry, an industry that is subsidised to destroy our enormous carbon stores, our forests," a spokesman, Noel Plumb, said.

"The Gillard government will not even cut the fuel subsidy for logging trucks that take the old growth forests from distant wilderness areas to the chipmill."

Carbon tax set to put value on Tasmanian forests

2011-07-11T10:10:00.000+10:00

Felicity Ogilvie
PM, abc.net.au, Monday, July 11, 2011 18:18:00

STEPHEN LONG: In Tasmania there's hope the carbon tax will finally put a price on the value of carbon stored in native forests.

A forestry peace deal between environmental groups and the forestry industry has recommended the creation of new reserves in Tasmania.

Under the carbon tax the trees in those reserves could attract carbon credits.

Felicity Ogilvie.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Environmentalists have spent years arguing that Tasmania's native forests shouldn't be logged.

PHIL PULLINGER: The forests in Tasmania are some of the most carbon dense forests on the face of the planet. They contain up to and over 1000 tonnes per hectare, 1500 tonnes per hectare of carbon.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Now Phil Pullinger from Environment Tasmania is hoping to take advantage of the carbon tax.

PHIL PULLINGER: The carbon tax is generating revenue from some of Australia's biggest polluters and one of the streams that they've allocated that revenue is a biodiversity fund for projects that are aimed at protecting and restoring native forests.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Mr Pullinger has spent more than a year brokering a peace deal with members of the forest industry and unions.

They've decided that large scale native forest logging in Tasmania will end and that 430,000 hectares of new reserves should be created.

They've handed the peace plan to the state and federal governments who are yet to work out how to implement the deal.

One of the key issues is compensation for the loggers, and Terry Edwards from the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania is confident the carbon tax will provide some of the money.

TERRY EDWARDS: Tasmania will after the, even before the current forest peace deal is concluded have the highest reservation of forest in any state of Australia.

And that ought to be recognised by the Federal Government through the biodiversity fund to recognise the carbon that accumulates in those trees which is removed for very long-term storage through carbon sequestration.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Lawyer and carbon trading expert Martijn Wilder explains how he thinks the peace plan can tap into the carbon tax.

MARTIJN WILDER: The scheme will cover projects to protect native forests from clearing or clearfelling. So if under the peace deal it can be shown that the clear intention here is to stop the logging of our forests in order to protect the native forest, then there will be carbon available for that.

There is a slight timing issue. If - you cannot go and find an existing native forest, say look that forest has a lot of carbon in it and we can therefore sell that carbon because that's already in place. That's not an additional activity.

But certainly where you are protecting native forests from clearing or clearfelling you'll be able to get credit for that.

FELICITY OGILVIE: But a spokesman from the Climate Change Minister's office says the Federal Government doesn't envisage the biodiversity fund in the carbon tax being used as part of the Tasmanian forestry peace deal.

The Tasmanian Greens Senator Christine Milne says that doesn't mean that the state can't make money from the new reserves.

CHRISTINE MILNE: There is a real possibility that Tasmania can have it both ways.

Tasmania can benefit immediately from protecting high conservation value forests and having the Commonwealth buy out the contracts and retire those contracts and then work in the future towards putting forward carbon farming projects for avoided degradation in remaining forests as can private land holders.

FELICITY OGILVIE: But the carbon in Tasmania's forests isn't recognised under the Kyoto Protocol. So as Martijn Wilder explains the carbon credits won't be worth as much as they could be.

MARTIJN WILDER: Those credits with the most value will be the Kyoto consistent credits and those will be eligible for the large polluters to buy to help offset their emissions.

Whereas the non-Kyoto credits will be something that's counted more towards people's voluntary obligations so if for example you took a flight on Qantas and you wanted to offset your emissions.

FELICITY OGILVIE: They may not be worth as much as they could be but scientists say the forests are mitigating climate change.

Pep Canadell is a CSIRO scientist who's the executive director of the Global Climate Project.

PEP CANADELL: New data is showing that forests around the world and that includes forests as vigorous as the ones in Tasmania are removing a third of the total fossil fuel emissions that are emitted every year.

So that with forests and the conservation of forests are at the forefront of climate change mitigation.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The State and Federal Governments are still considering how many new forest reserves should be created as part of the Tasmanian peace deal.

STEPHEN LONG: Felicity Ogilvie reporting from Hobart.