Election promise dishonoured: old-growth forests to be felled

The Wilderness Society (Vic) Inc
Joint Media Release
13 November 2009

Victoria’s peak environment groups today expressed dismay and disappointment at a Bill second read in Parliament this week, which proposes a new forest protection system in East Gippsland that excludes many of Victoria’s oldest and most important forests.
 
“While the state government should be congratulated for protecting some of Victoria’s magnificent forest areas such as Goolengook and Yalmy, they have failed to protect other significant areas,” the Wilderness Society’s Victorian Forest Campaigner Luke Chamberlain said.
 
“In the days before the 2006 state election, the government promised to protect the last significant stands of old growth forests in East Gippsland, but ancient forests such as those at Brown Mountain, Stony Creek and Bungywarr will continue to be logged under this new system." 
 
“Even old growth forests such as Ferntree Creek and Big River, which were originally promised protection, have now been removed from the proposed reserve system. And half the forests allocated for protection by the government are actually already in reserves. The whole thing just does not make sense.”
 
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Healthy Country campaigner Lindsay Hesketh said the state’s remaining old-growth forests were valuable for many reasons.
 
“Old-growth forested water catchments are essential for Victoria’s future water security because of the high water yield they provide. They are also the biggest forest carbon stores on earth and provide the best habitat for forest dependant native wildlife,” he said.
 
“Sending them to the paper mills of Japan is a shocking failure by the government to demonstrate leadership and facilitate a transition to a more sustainable plantation industry."
 
“Instead of continuing to subsidise the logging industry, which has left the East Gippsland community struggling, the Victorian Government should look forward and support innovation in tourism, the region’s primary economic growth industry.”
 
The Victorian National Parks Association Conservation and Campaigns Manager Megan Clinton, added: “With little of our old-growth forest left, this announcement leaves many old-growth areas exposed to the logging industry and tragically many of these will be felled in the coming months,” she said.
 
“The Brumby Government has not only blown a golden opportunity to protect the state’s remaining old-growth forests, it has also missed the chance to create jobs by developing Victoria’s existing plantation industry and establishing East Gippsland’s forests as a new tourism hotspot.”

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