Mission & Justice

30/5/08

The Victorian government has signed a $5.5 million deal to buy back native forest in Gippsland’s Strzelecki Ranges. The landmark deal will save more than 20,000 hectares of native forest from logging in the state’s south-east. Environment Minister Gavin Jennings announced the agreement between the government and HVP Plantations. It follows an election promise to buy back the 8,000 hectare Cores and Links area, which was sold to HVP in 1998 by the former Kennett government. Under the deal, an additional 15,000 hectares of native forests surrounding the Cores and Links will also be protected.

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Genesis Kofana; 21/508

There is fear of a mass redundancy exercise, and stockpile of logs, by logging companies currently operating in the country, in protest of the increase in determined price for logs carried out by the government. Sources within the government have stated that certain logging companies have warned the government of likely actions if the government refuses to listen to their demand. Logging companies are petitioning the government on the likely actions they will take should the government increase the determined price from US$71 to the proposed new rate of US$78. The logging companies have stated that the increase of determined price, along with the increase in the minimum wage, have made operations in the country very expensive.

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21/5/07

Papua New Guinea is getting less for its round log exports, Mendi MP Isaac Joseph told Parliament yesterday. Mr Joseph raised the matter during Question Time and asked if the Government was aware there were a lot of discrepancies in the export of PNG logs to China in particular, and specifically claimed Hong Kong statistics for logs imported from PNG was much smaller than that registered in the PNG export statistics. Mr Joseph said that for 2000 registered only 25 cubic metres of logs were imported from PNG. “This discrepancy indicates the possible use of Hong Kong as a port of reference by exporting companies and that documents are later re-issued in Hong Kong for another port and importer,” Mr Joseph said. But Forest Minister Belden Namah, in his response, fell short in explaining why the country was receiving less for its round logs exports.

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Matthew Denholm; 17/5/08

Tasmanian’s Director of Public Health has banned Gunns from using controversial herbicides in a town drinking-water catchment and suggested their use state-wide be reconsidered. Roscoe Taylor revealed yesterday he had directed the timber company not to use the triazine herbicides - atrazine and simazine - to control weeds in its forest plantations in the Macquarie River catchment. This followed repeated detection of simazine in drinking water supplies for the town of Ross at levels more than double the national guideline. Dr Taylor also told The Weekend Australian he believed the use of the chemicals in cooler states might need to be re-examined following evidence they were persisting longer in cool environments.

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28/4/08

Four people have been arrested while protesting against logging in a southern Tasmanian forest. About 20 protesters attempted to stop logging of an old-growth forest in the Little Denison Valley, 35km west of Huonville, south-west of Hobart. A spokesman for the Huon Valley Environment Centre, Warrick Jordan, said those arrested had been unfairly threatened but police say they had violently resisted.

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Ashleigh Wilson;18/4/08

Inadequate international laws are allowing an illegal timber trade worth more than $2 billion a year to flourish across the Asia-Pacific region, with 9 per cent of all timber imports to Australia coming from illicit sources. The findings are contained in a report by the Australian Institute of Criminology, which says the revenue from illegal logging has been used to finance rogue regimes and human rights abuses. The illegal trade, amid booming global demand for timber and timber products, results in lost government revenue and lasting environmental damage. “Corruption and bribery at all levels of government are common at every stage of this illicit trade,” the report says.

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2/08

Maintaining forests is essential in maintaining a healthy environment as nearly 90 percent of terrestrial biodiversity is found in the forests of the world. The rainforests of Indonesia are the most significant in South East Asia, home to an abundance of flora and fauna unmatched in any country of comparable size. Although Indonesia occupies only 1.3 per cent of the world’s land area, it possesses 10 per cent of the world’s flowering plant species, 12 per cent of all mammal species, 17 per cent of all reptile and amphibian species and 17 per cent of all bird species. The majority of these species are found in the country’s forests. Illegal logging and the associated illegal trade directly threatens ecosystems and biodiversity in forests throughout Asia and the world. Most of the carbon emissions of developing nations come from deforestation which, according to the World Bank, accounts for between 10 to 30 per cent of global carbon emissions.

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