5000 'reclaim our forests'
By Marcel Cameron
PERTH — Five thousand people streamed into the Perth Entertainment Centre on May 30 to attend a "Reclaim our Forests" public meeting called by the Western Australian Forest Alliance (WAFA). The meeting reflected the widespread outrage provoked by a regional forest agreement (RFA), signed on May 4, that will allow up to 40% of the remaining unlogged tall eucalypt forest in WA's south-west to be clear-felled and turned into woodchips.
Public support for the protection of remaining old-growth forest is overwhelming. In an attempt to convince people that the RFA strikes a "balance" between forest protection and jobs in the timber industry, the state government has launched a $360,000 propaganda campaign featuring full-page ads in the West Australian newspaper.
The RFA will revoke 17 national parks, nature reserves and conservation parks; increase by just 13% the amount of old-growth forest protected in reserves; remove government controls on woodchip exports; and leave overall logging levels unchanged.
Among the high conservation value forest areas available for clear-felling are the heritage-listed old growth karri and jarrah forest known as Jane Forest, the scenic Peak Forest jarrah wilderness and Giblett forest.
According to WAFA, an umbrella group of environmental organisations, the RFA process "has been sham, conducted in secret by bureaucrats and politicians and manipulated according to a coordinated strategy to give the [state] government and its major political donor, Wesfarmers-Bunnings, the predetermined outcome they wanted". Bunnings is the largest supplier of timber and woodchips from old-growth forest in WA.
WAFA convener Peter Robertson told the meeting that the RFA process was "driven entirely by the needs and interests of the logging and mining companies. Which areas did the industry want? That is how the reserve system was designed."
Professor Harry Recher, of the School of Natural Sciences at Edith Cowan University, said that the RFA was not endorsed by scientists.
"The reserve system is not comprehensive, it is not adequate and it is not representative. These changes in forest management leave no room for forest plants and animals. We're protecting the things the industry doesn't want. The RFA is a political exercise with the primary intent of guaranteeing resource security to the timber industry", Recher said.
State Labor leader Geoff Gallop told the meeting that Labor "has completely rewritten its forest policy ... there will be no logging of old-growth forest in the future".
He did not elaborate on the details of the new forest policy, which commits a Labor government to end old-growth logging only after existing logging contracts have expired in December 2003. By this time much of the old-growth forest available for logging under the RFA will already have been clear-felled.
Greens WA parliamentarian Christine Sharp reassured the meeting that "democracy works, but it takes time". Sharpe sponsored the High Conservation Value Forest Protection Bill in the upper house of the WA parliament, which was passed with the support of the ALP and the Democrats.
The bill, if passed by the lower house, would enforce a temporary moratorium on the logging of old-growth forest while the RFA is debated by both houses of parliament.
For this to happen, six government MPs must support it. "If we can pull off that miracle, we can stop the RFA", said Sharp. "Wreak havoc with your vote."
The meeting launched the next phase of the campaign. The immediate focus will be lobbying government MPs in marginal seats to pass the Sharp's bill, which will be put to parliament on June 16.
June has been declared Old-Growth Forest Awareness Month and will feature guided tours of the forest and other activities. WAFA is also urging consumers to boycott Bunnings' products.