By Stephen Robson
PERTH — Fifty-four thousand hectares of old growth karri and jarrah forest in the southern and central forests in WA are to be clear-felled by 1997, a report by the WA Conservation Council has revealed.
Released on November 10, the report was originally commissioned by federal environment minister John Faulkner in preparation for considering renewal of woodchip export licences.
The study of old growth and wilderness forests concentrated on the high conservation value forest blocks under immediate threat in the next three years from "roading and logging operations which will primarily provide logs to the woodchipping industry".
The report found:
- all remaining old growth and wilderness forests in WA are of high conservation value;
- the forest of south-west WA are unique and of "critical ecological, social, cultural and scientific value";
- the forest blocks in need of protection are "in most cases relatively large areas of undisturbed or minimally disturbed old growth forests and associated ecosystems";
- most of the blocks form crucial parts of a "wider landscape of natural values including wilderness and catchments";
- in most cases, especially in the southern forest region, the blocks identified are either listed or interim-listed on the Register of the National Estate.
The study examined 378 separate logging operations, 47 in the central forest region, the balance in the southern region. All 47 in the central forest region are within old growth jarrah forest and 276 in the southern forest region are within old growth karri and jarrah forest. The study concluded that all unlogged and old growth forests in the central forest region are "likely to have high conservation value" and called for interim protection "pending a full and detailed assessment of their conservation and National Estate values".
Despite the nominal moratorium on logging in high conservation value forests, the department of Conservation and Land Management is continuing to log, making a "mockery of the Register of the National Estate, the Australian Heritage Commission, the National Forest Policy and the Commonwealth government's purported concern for biodiversity and ecologically sustainable development".
Council vice-president Peter Robertson indicated that "any failure" on the part of the federal government "to protect the identified forests from woodchipping would be an ecological disaster and would bring severe political repercussions".