Should we create national parks to protect koalas from logging and land clearing?
According to a recent poll in the NSW seats of Lismore and Ballina the answer is a resounding YES with 68.3% of participants in Lismore and 71.9% in Ballina in favour.
Tag: forests
Forests not Woodlots
Margaret Blakers, director of the Green Institute and a long-time environmentalist
Rosemary Beaumont’s article is timely. The Great Southern Forest is part of a larger picture which will see the fate of over 6 million hectares of Australia’s most loved native forests decided between now and 2021. Either they will be handed to the logging industry for another 20 years, effectively to become woodlots, or the federal government will resume environmental oversight and give the forests a chance.
Forests are not Magic Puddings
Article from the Victorian National Parks Association ’Victoria’s forests are not magic puddings’ March 2017.
Matt Ruchel, member of the Forest Industry Task Force and executive director of the Victorian National Parks Association, explains why sawmills and the pulp and paper industry don’t understand how forests work.
Forests are living ecosystems, not magic puddings, and cannot supply something that doesn’t exist.
The recent declaration by VicForests, the state government’s logging agency, that there is insufficient wood to supply Gippsland sawmills, is hardly surprising – the writing has been on the wall for decades, made worse by the Black Saturday fires.
A Better Future for Public Native Forests
It’s possible with diverse community support
Dr Oisín Sweeney, Senior Ecologist, National Parks Association of NSW
Last year the National Parks Association NSW (NPA) released a report that showed how, despite being a noble attempt to marry some pretty uncomfortable bedfellows (logging, conservation and recreation), the Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) have failed in all of their high level aims. From protecting the environment to maintaining long-term economic stability and jobs in forest industries, the RFAs have not worked. A new approach is desperately needed writes Oisín Sweeney.
Expiry of first Regional Forest Agreement offers opportunity to end the forest wars
Wednesday the 3rd February is a milestone in the long and chequered history of native forest management in Australia. The first Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) expires in East Gippsland following 20 years of destructive logging. Instead of just extending them, prolonging conflict and driving species towards the edge, now is the time to chart a new course says the National Parks Association of NSW (NPA).
Regional Forest Agreements are 20-year deals between the state and federal governments that permit the logging of public native forests. Across Australia, almost 7 million hectares of native eucalyptus forests are logged under 10 RFAs[1]. The RFAs were an attempt to marry conservation, logging and recreation to bring an end to the ‘forest wars’ that pitted conservationists against the logging industry. They haven’t worked.
Read More “Expiry of first Regional Forest Agreement offers opportunity to end the forest wars”
Review of evidence concludes Regional Forest Agreements a failed model for forest management (Parks Protection News)
Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) that have been the framework for public forest management in NSW for 20 years have failed to achieve any of their top-line aims, a new study has found.
The Agreements, which were the centrepiece of the peace deal that ended the “Forest Wars” of the 1980s and 1990s, were supposed to lead to:
- Creation of a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of forest reserves;
- Implementation and enforcement of ecologically sustainable forest management practices;
- Development of a viable, ecologically sustainable timber industry;
- Ongoing research into ecological, economic, and social aspect of forest management.
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