By Stephen Robson
PERTH — Decisions on Western Australia's woodchip licence renewals are expected to be made by the federal government prior to Christmas. While the federal minister for the environment, Senator Faulkner, has responsibility to prepare advice, the final decision on licence renewals is made by the minister for resources, David Beddell.
Action to bring pressure to bear on the federal government is still continuing in several blocks of old growth forests targeted for logging in WA's south-west.
- At Lockhart block, 45 kilometres north of Walpole, endangered mallee fowl have been sighted about 3km from logging operations. Until recently the mallee fowl was thought extinct in the south-west forests. All woodchip licences include a condition obliging the exporter not to threaten with extinction or significantly impede the recovery of species listed under the Endangered Species Protection Act.
Protesters point out that the reality is that when endangered species are threatened, logging continues regardless. Dr Jean-Paul Orsini, the WA coordinator of the National Threatened Species Network, explained, "Logging is incompatible with the survival of the mallee fowl ... because of the destruction of the habitat, burning and opening up the area to foxes".
Protesters erected a tripod structure over a log loader. On October 18 the police moved in with a cherry picker to remove a 22-year-old environmental scientist from the top of the tripod.
- In Rocky block, 40 campaigners halted logging for four hours on October 13. Spokesperson Peter Robertson said, "It is tragic to see these logging operations in such remote and unspoiled forests. It is almost obscene to observe the type of timber being removed: piles of jarrah and marri logs with barely a single tree over 1 foot in diameter."
- On October 16, a rescue picnic organised by the Balingup Friends of the Forest brought 150 people to the Balingup Kerr forest. The block is the habitat of the chuditch, the native cat. Cassandra Menard explained to Green Left Weekly that community pressure had "held off logging for over two years". However, logging is now planned to begin on October 31.
The state department of Conservation and Land Management argues that there is no lasting threat to endangered species from logging and burning.
Following questions in federal parliament on October 12 by Greens (WA) Senator Christabel Chamarette, the Australian Nature Conservation Agency asked for a deferral of logging until January. So far this call has not been heeded.
Menard explained that the community would declare the Balingup Kerr forest a wildlife sanctuary at a rally planned for October 29. A rally has been organised for Fremantle on December 3.