LEGAL CHALLENGE TO FOREST MANAGEMENT IN NSW

The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is challenging the NSW Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) in the Federal Court on behalf of the North East Forests Alliance (NEFA),    The North East RFA, which covers logging in the coastal area from Sydney to the Queensland border, was renewed in 2018 for a further 20 years with rolling extensions that could continue indefinitely.

There are ten RFAs around Australia with three in NSW - the North East, the Southern and Eden.

The RFAs signed between the State and Commonwealth exempt native forest logging from federal biodiversity and approval requirements under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. 

NEFA has for years been concerned about the impact that the RFA has had on vulnerable and endangered species such as Koalas, Greater Gliders, Regent Honeyeaters and Rufous Scrub-birds in our region’s native forests.  This impact has been made worse following the devastating North Coast fires of 2019-20 which killed so many native animals and damaged so much habitat. 

David Morris, EDO Chief Executive Officer said, “We are challenging the Federal Government over its failure to assess how another 20-plus years of logging, against a background of a changing climate, will impact our forest ecosystems, endangered species and old growth forests.

“The Commonwealth didn’t want to incur the costs of conducting a proper assessment, waving through a 20-year extension of native forest logging without proper scrutiny.

“Under the current system, if a population of koalas is being threatened by a new development, the project needs to be assessed at the Federal level.  But if the same population of koalas is being threatened by a logging project, it’s been rubber stamped on the basis of 20-year-old environmental assessments.”

Mr Morris emphasised the importance of agreements such as the RFAs being founded on the latest scientific knowledge on both climate and the state of our forest ecosystems.

Conservationists hope that historical case will lead to positive change in the management of our state forests and protection of the important native species which rely on them as habitat.

            - Leonie Blain

Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , August 11,, 2021

CAMPAIGN FOR THE ULTIMATE RENEWABLE NEEDS QUESTIONING

 Letter to the editor The Port Macquarie News

Many readers of the Port News would have seen recently on television the latest propaganda from the Forest and Wood Products Australia group.

In this short video advertisement the actor with a safety helmet explains to the viewer that wood sourced sustainably is the Ultimate Renewable as the carbon in the timber in your house is stored for life and the trees are replaced from the thousands of seedlings pictured in the industry's nursery soaking up more carbon.

Sounds good but this description of the industry is deceptive.

There is obviously up to 100 years age gap before the seedlings replace the old trees that actually are more efficient at absorbing carbon dioxide than the growing saplings.

Furthermore the script completely and intentionally omits to mention biomass burning for energy.

The NSW DPI (Department of Primary Industry) claims that, "The benefits of using forestry residues for bio-energy include the opportunity to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by displacing the use of fossil fuels."

The Forest Corporation intends to use Industrial Logging to harvest 142,000 hectares of our state forests from Taree to Grafton with "residues" feeding the proposed biomass plants at Bulahdelah, Herons Creek, Kempsey and Grafton.

The Herons Creek plant even has the support of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency ARENA) to trial making bitumen and diesel from forest material.

Single Tree selection has now become "Every Single Tree" with leaves, sticks, trees not millable and sawdust going to biomass and chips and pellet to export.

The USA and the EU, especially England have been running this rort for some time claiming that burning timber is more efficient and sustainable however the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change summarized the emissions of bio-energy use as follows: "The combustion of biomass generates gross Green House Gas emissions roughly equivalent to the combustion of fossil fuels." When wood is burned to produce electricity, it releases an estimated 80% more carbon dioxide per unit of electricity than coal.

To make this devastation of our biodiversity easier the NSW LNP Government has removed the prescription to search for koalas before logging and is moving to make old growth trees "new" again. 

It is no wonder people are talking about the extinction of arboreal wildlife in NSW

.

            - John Jeayes

Published in The Port Macquarie News on July 23, 2019.

IS NSW FORESTRY MANAGEMENT ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE?

The historic Forest Agreements were signed in 1999, but has the Integrated Forest Operations Approval (IFOA) achieved its stated objective of meeting the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management (ESFM)? The official evidence shows it has not.

The Auditor General's “2009 Performance Audit”  stated “native forest managed by Forests NSW (FNSW) is being cut faster than it is growing back”, and “current yield from native forests is not sustainable in the long term”.

Over-logging has seriously negative flow-on effects for biodiversity, conservation of which is pivotal to meeting ESFM principles.

By 2012, none of the required 5 yearly reviews of the IFOA had been undertaken. The 2009 Final Report on “Progress with Implementation of NSW RFAs” found FNSW's performance in delivering biodiversity outcomes in logged forests, could not be measured. That report identified  an, “absence of any real comparative data on this issue”, adding this “makes it virtually impossible to determine whether there is improvement or not”.

Boral's failure to obtain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accreditation in 2013, shows the FSC believed logging processes carried out by FNSW harmed high conservation values, i.e. endangered species and communities.

One glaring example of FNSW’s duty of care failure, is their continued release of harvest plans calling for high intensity logging rates, which they know triggers the devastating Bell Miner Associated Dieback (BMAD), which threatens eucalypt forests across NSW. (FNSW was represented on the BMAD Scientific Working Group which nominated the disease as a Key Threatening Process.)

The Final Report acknowledged that the EPA's compliance monitoring and enforcement had “attracted considerable and largely adverse comment from submitters”, recommending the need “to give priority to audit and compliance activity, and that auditing be closely scrutinised as part of the NSW Review”.

A 2014 inquiry into the EPA's (Environment Protection Authority) performance found the agency had repeatedly failed in this regard.  It has been rewarded by the Government with a significant boost to its operating budget. However, the EPA is currently working on an IFOA “remake” which will eliminate many of the biodiversity protections they were previously supposed to enforce. Threatened species are the big losers.

-          J Edwards

 This post was originally published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Daily Examiner on 31 August, 2015

HOLLOW LOGS ARE VALUABLE

Photo: J Edwards

“The ecological roles of logs in Australian forests and the potential impacts of harvesting intensification on log-using biota”, is the rather complex title of a 2002 report by scientists based at the Australian National University which, to put it simply, is a review of the ecological values of logs in Australian eucalypt forests. While more than 10 years old the report still has relevance with on-going timber industry lobbying to allow the burning of wood to generate electricity.

The ecological value of hollow logs, and standing dead trees is recognised in law, with the destruction of both deemed Key Threatening Processes under the Threatened Species Conservation (TSC) Act , and their destruction is identified as a threat to many high profile species such as Quoll, Glossy-black Cockatoo, Regent Parrot, Brush-tailed Phascogale, Large Forest Owls, and Squirrel and Yellow-bellied Gliders.

While this knowledge is generally well-known, it is just the tip of the ecological role provided by logs. The study identifies that they provide crucial functions throughout their life which could last many decades, even centuries, with those functions changing with mind-boggling complexity as they decompose over time.

Logs have critical functions for forest biodiversity, providing places for key social behaviour for an astonishing range of living creatures from reptiles to rodents, birds to bacteria; snails, beetles, borers, millipedes, worms, weevils and roaches.  The list is endless. In fact the report lists 57 reptile species alone in south eastern Australia that utilise logs for shelter, safe passage, foraging, hibernation, and even basking.

As they decompose, logs provide plant germination sites, providing substrates to promote growth of fungi, and refuge for living organisms during drought and fire, while also contributing to heterogeneity in the litter layer, and playing a significant role in nutrient cycling.

However, many see logs, particularly residue from logging operations, as unsightly waste needing to be removed or burned. While often claiming otherwise, usual forestry practice is to burn residues seeing them as obstacles to future operations, giving little thought to the crucial role they play in maintaining the amazing biodiversity which provides us humans with everything we need to survive.

-John Edwards

This post was originally published (without the photos) in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on 4 May 2015.

Photo: J Edwards