By Yael
GIPPSLAND — The Goolengook forest, situated in East Gippsland, north-east Victoria is threatened by unsustainable logging practices.
The only government study of Goolengook forest, conducted in 1991, recommended that, to maintain ecological sustainability, a minimum of 55% of the forest be classified a "site of significance" (SOS), in which logging is not permitted. More than 64% of Goolengook is currently available for logging.
Until 1995, seven SOSs were established which were considerably smaller than recommended. These "special protection" or "management" zones were "movable". Forests containing important ecological value cannot be adequately preserved by a system that allows other areas to be reserved in their place. Although logging is not permitted in these areas, roads have been built through them.
The government report stated that Goolengook forest offers "the best opportunity in Victoria for the protection of cool temperate rainforest, warm temperate rainforest, and overlap rainforest in three adjacent and intact catchments". These findings were ignored by Victorian environment minister Marie Tehan, who approved logging in Goolengook on June 4 last year.
Multinational companies are selling off our old growth forests, subsidised by tax revenue. Up to 90% of the old growth forest is exported at 50 cents a tonne as woodchips for paper production.
Goolengook forest is the habitat for many endangered species. The government overlooked recommendations on how to preserve these species. Wildlife experts have said that a minimum of 3000 tiger quolls is needed to ensure survival of that species. Only 23 are in protected areas. Of the 1500 hectares of habitat the sooty owl requires to prevent its extinction, just one third has been designated for protection.
Tehan gave permission for logging in breach of the Heritage Rivers Act, 1992. This act protects 18 of Victoria's most significant rivers and their tributaries. It states that no logging is permitted within a 200-metre buffer zone on each side of a protected river. Since logging began, over 800 hectares have been removed from such protection.
Rather than penalise the perpetrators of this crime, the state government retrospectively altered the law to legalise their infringements. The passage of this legislation on May 12 was protested by 50 activists who stretched banners across the length of Parliament House steps in Melbourne.