Carr caves in to forest industry
By Simon Kenny
SYDNEY — Prior to the last NSW election, Premier Bob Carr promised to "end all export woodchipping of native forests by the year 2000". Given that the level of export woodchipping in NSW has increased since then and that Harris-Daishowa's woodchipping activities in the south-east are guaranteed until 2019, it appears that Carr does not intend to honour this promise.
When questioned late last year, Carr was evasive about his "promise" and chose instead to highlight the number of national parks established during his government's term. These parks, however, are meaningless from a conservation perspective if they are left as isolated pockets of native forest surrounded by state forests that have been clear-felled and regenerated into fast-growing eucalypt monocultures.
As soon as it was announced that certain areas were to be declared national parks at the start of 1999, logging companies set about logging as many as possible before the new year. Although this was stopped by blockades of forests near Bulahdelah and Myall Lakes, many of the new national parks were substantially logged.
The logging industry is now controlled by a collection of regional forest agreements (RFAs). The negotiation of these was set down by the federal government in the National Forest Policy Statement in 1992. Although this statement contains many promising conservation goals, its basic goal is a complete devolution of federal forestry powers to the states.
In the negotiations for the agreements, the timber industry gets almost everything its wants regardless of conservation considerations. For example, in the Eden region, industry was granted 25,000 of the 26,000 cubic metres of woodchips it demanded as well as $6 million to build a new chipping mill at Eden.
NSW RFAs have been set in stone by the Forestry and National Park Estate Act (1998). This act removes any right to challenge the agreements. Conditions can be altered without environmental impact studies being done. As each RFA last 20 years, this legislation is disastrous for the conservation movement.
A brief perusal of material produced by the timber industry will reveal a glossy and misleading portrait of forestry practices in NSW. Such material uses heavily euphemistic words such as "harvesting" instead of logging, and "adaptive management" rather than clear-felling. The National Association of Forest Industries (an industry front group) states that it is committed to the principle of "ecological sustainable development".
However, on January 20 all the peak environmental groups agreed that no timber from NSW native forests could be credibly certified as coming from a well-managed forest.
We must strive to make the coming NSW election more then just a "law and order" auction and ensure that pressure is brought to save the forests.
[Simon Kenny is a Resistance member and the environmental officer at the University of Technology, Sydney.]