Native forests: licence to plunder

Mel Bull and Graham Matthews On October 24, federal cabinet will decide on the woodchip export licences for 1996. Following the outrage at the decision by federal resource minister Bedall at the end of 1994 to increase woodchip export quotas significantly for 1995, many people expected the "deferred forestry assessment" (DFA) process implemented this year, to ensure that Australia's remaining old growth forests would be protected from the chipper. Since the draft plan of the areas to be protected was released over two weeks ago, however, this expectation has appeared increasingly uncertain. Frustrated with the development of the DFA process to date, the peak environment organisations are planning a series of actions to bring pressure to bear on federal cabinet before a licence decision is made. The focus of the actions will be a "roving" forest embassy based in and around Canberra over the weekend of October 21-22. "The deferred forest areas that are to be put aside this year are not necessarily the best of our forests", Wilderness Society (TWS) spokesperson Indra Esquerra told Green Left Weekly. "They are going to preserve a whole lot of areas that aren't worth protection and a lot of areas that need protecting aren't being protected." The environmental groups have adopted the strategy of attempting to bring pressure on the federal government before it makes its licence allocations. "The decision is possibly going to be postponed for a week, so it's just putting pressure on the government to think wisely about those decisions, because they are still deciding. It's possible they will postpone and make wiser decisions than handing out a whole lot of [DFA] maps that don't mean anything", Esquerra said. On October 22, TWS is organising an open day in NSW south east forests. This is to "show [people] these old growth forests that are going to be logged, as well as clear-felled areas that are [included in draft DFA maps to be] protected", Esquerra said. The day will end with a march and blockade of the Daishowa woodchip mill in Eden. The blockade will continue to the end of the week. The Wilderness Society is planning rallies in some other cities in the week before the licence decision is made. "Prior to the final cabinet decision on the forest ... we will be organising "Rallies for the Forests" in Melbourne on October 22 and Hobart on October 18", TWS campaign coordinator James Day told Green Left. A rally for the forests in Perth in early October attracted up to 25,000 people angry at the pillage of WA's native forests by the woodchip industry. At this time, the peak environmental groups are not proposing any rallies in Sydney, despite the successful mobilisation against the 1995 woodchip licences in February. Despite the protracted process that has preceded the federal government's decision on woodchip licences, there is no guarantee that quotas for 1996 will be reduced. Federal resource minister Bedall was cited in the October 7 Sydney Morning Herald as saying that only those states which did not cooperate on the development of a reserve system would be penalised by having their woodchip export quotas reduced by 20% each year. Faced with the prospect of an unacceptable result emerging from cabinet's deliberations, TWS are adopting a wait and see attitude. "First we will just have to see what decisions are made", Esquerra said. She added, "I think we will be taking the pressure down to the forest if bad decisions are made". Carla Gorton from the Native Forest Alliance in SA told Green Left that the environment movement needed to take the struggle right up to federal cabinet. "Three weeks for consideration and consultation on the draft DFAs is simply not enough time. Once the decision is made, it will be much harder to turn it around. "We need to demand that federal cabinet postpone its decision on the export quotas to allow sufficient time for a thorough assessment, and for further discussion to take place", Gorton said. "Our only alternative is continuing to fight the campaign from behind, forest by forest, after another disastrous woodchipping decision is made." The DFA process is flawed to the point that it may not lead to either a comprehensive forest reserve system or a reduction in woodchipping of old growth forests. "A failed or rorted DFA process, as is currently being proposed by states like WA and Victoria, would see a cut in the woodchipping quota [of 20% in those states], but we'll also see the destruction of our remaining old growth forest", said Day. "It's up to the federal government to deliver an acceptable outcome on forests and cut woodchipping as they have promised to do", he said. The October 24 decision will be hotly contested with logging interests bringing intense pressure to bear on the federal government to guarantee ongoing profitability. A series of misleading television and newspaper ads link reductions in woodchip export quotas with the demise of small logging communities across the country. Executive director of the National Association of Forest Industries, Dr Robert Bain, was quoted in the October 11 Sydney Morning Herald calling for an end to woodchip export quotas altogether. "Once the DFA process is completed there should be no limit on licences", Bain said. The fact that woodchipping itself has wiped out numerous jobs in the timber industry over the past decade is conveniently omitted from the ads. Also omitted is the fact that the viability of the industry currently relies on the availability of old growth forest, which is rapidly being exhausted. With less than one week to go before the woodchip licences are decided, the environment movement is slowly bringing some pressure to bear on the federal Labor government. "We are extremely disappointed, indeed outraged would be a better word for it", Day told Green Left. "The draft [DFAs] are totally inadequate. There is no way that the environment movement could accept these as a basis for what are meant to be a series of comprehensive, adequate and representative reserves." The final week of the negotiations will be crucial according to Sid Walker, executive director of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW. "For the first two weeks [of the consultation period], we haven't been in a position to do much consultation", Walker told Green Left Weekly. "We wanted to do our homework first and this is being done at a regional level in NSW ... We have had people with considerable technical expertise looking in detail at what the [federal] government has proposed and doing a critique of it." Walker said, "We have a fantastic case in NSW for protecting considerably more forest, and perhaps most importantly, important forests that are currently left off the DFA list." Federal cabinet's decision on October 24 will mark a watershed in the government's relations with the peak environmental groups. "The federal government is in the unique position of being in government", Day commented. "And having been in government for 12 years now they will be assessed on their performance. If they fail to perform they cannot expect the support of the environment movement." "We have signalled that this year we are making forests a priority", Walker said. "This is high noon for the forest issue and if the issue is ignored by government, then the community as a whole will hold those governments accountable. With the federal elections coming up I think it is well understood in Canberra how important getting this issue right is to the future of the Keating government". For information about campaign actions, contact the Wilderness Society in your state.