New jobs for forestry workers
The South East Forest Alliance has released a proposed jobs package offering income security for workers displaced by the extension of the national parks system under the South-East Forests Protection Bill to be presented to state parliament in late February.
The Resource Assessment Commission had declared the hardwood sawlog industry unsustainable, said SEFA. The industry faced a declining market share, exemplified by woodchip company Daishowa's Eden operations, which face strong competition from new and cheaper overseas hardwood plantations.
The SEFA jobs package, said alliance convener Jeff Angel, "fits in neatly with the need for the region to change its economic direction and counters recent dire predictions about the future of jobs in the timber industry".
The alternative jobs package focuses on sustainable industries such as softwood plantations and tourism.
"The employment package is a transition plan proposing 120 jobs for workers displaced by the creation of essential national parks in the high conservation value forests of the South East", said the plan's author, Dr John Formby.
"The timber industry has a future in the region if it embraces the shift to established softwood plantations. The region can also further develop other sustainable industries such as tourism. By the end of 1993, an additional 185 jobs will be available in tourism and softwoods, growing to 410 in 1998."
"Do we sort out the region's economy now or do we let our last old growth forest be woodchipped?", asked Angel. "Once the resource is destroyed, we will witness the withdrawal of an exploitative multinational company, leaving a swathe of unemployment and a destroyed environment."
According to SEFA, the new park areas would add 47,000 ha to the 1990 park decision by Premier Nick Greiner and Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Additional forest totalling about 36,000 ha could be protected pending further investigation of their conservation values by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.