By Simon Tayler and Eva Boland
CANBERRA — In March, the NSW Labor government plans to sign the regional forest agreement (RFA) it put forward last year for the Eden management area. Eden has very little old-growth forest remaining, and the RFA does little or nothing to protect it.
The ALP's 1995 forests policy promised to phase out export woodchipping. Labor also promised to encourage more sustainable forestry practices, such as harvesting plantation timber.
The RFA encourages woodchipping of native forests. Ninety percent of the wood harvest in the Eden management area is turned into woodchips.
Woodchipping is a practice of little economic value, given the low market price for woodchips. Compared to other practices, such as using logs for building products, it provides little employment.
Despite this, the government continues to encourage the removal of native forests in the Eden area, mainly for woodchipping. It recently signed a contract with Harris-Daishowa allowing that company to harvest 345,000 tonnes of woodchips per year.
The RFA does little to encourage the development of plantations. Plantations have the potential to directly create 3000 jobs in NSW, most of them in regional areas with high unemployment. At present, the government subsidises the harvesting of native forest at twice the rate it does for plantation timber.
The RFA does little to protect the few remaining ecosystems in which native fauna live. For instance, it allows the logging of more than 60% of the habitat area of local koalas, threatening their survival.
As with other such RFAs, the government has prioritised the profits of companies such as Harris-Daishowa over the needs of people and the environment.
[Resistance is planning a "Save the forests" speak-out in Canberra on February 18, 5pm, Garema Place. Phone 6247 2424.]