Showing posts with label afca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label afca. Show all posts
25 August, 2011
Federal Environment Act Reform fails Forests and Climate Change
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
14 August, 2011
Wood would do what it does best - store carbon
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."
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."
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