A marked
absence of any real focus on environmental matters by either of the two major
political parties in the current drawn-out federal election campaign prompted a
strategy meeting to be held by NSW North Coast environmental groups recently.
At the
head of the list of concerns is the almost total lack of any proposal for
meaningful action on climate change.
Carbon
emissions need to be reduced urgently. Protecting forests is an important and
effective form of carbon sequestration that the government could act on
immediately.
It was pointed
out that the 20 million trees program, promoted under the current government's Direct
Action policy, would be more than offset by the number of trees being destroyed
by the Pacific Highway upgrade in the Clarence Valley alone.
The
dumping of the NSW Native Vegetation Act and proposed relaxing of restrictions on
land clearing in NSW, under the State Government's new Biodiversity Bill, will
further exacerbate the problem, and positive actions to promote revegetation of
the landscape were identified.
In
particular, the meeting reminded all political parties that, “Forests are
the lungs of the earth.. They take in the carbon dioxide we emit, store the
carbon and give us life-giving oxygen in return. They are vital to mitigate the
impacts of climate change with the urgency required to halt the demise of the
Great Barrier Reef”.
The
meeting agreed that an effective way to achieve immediate positive results
would be to:
- stop logging of native forests on public land.
- stop clearing of native forests on private land, and
- stop proposed burning of forests to generate electricity.
At the
same time politicians were urged to support the imposition of a carbon trading
scheme that would provide landowners with an alternative income stream to
logging, Furthermore, landowners should be rewarded for protecting and
rehabilitating native forests, protecting biodiversity, and restoring wildlife
corridors and stream buffers.
Actions
that reduce atmospheric carbon would not only help the Great Barrier Reef, and
other ecosystems under threat from climate change, but also help replace the
habitat of hundreds of threatened species already facing extinction through
habitat loss, including Australia's iconic Koalas.
-
John Edwards
