Stakeholder Consultation Report, attached, interesting bits highlighted for quicker reading.
Highlights:
Submissions from more than 1500 individuals and 160 organisations.
Viewpoints and evidence in support of environmental concerns tended to submit that:
• Native forest harvesting in NSW has major impacts on biodiversity and endangered species and should cease as soon as possible.
• Healthy, protected and intact forests are intrinsically, socially and culturally valuable.
• The forestry industry does not have the capability to deliver beneficial environmental outcomes.
NEFA: “Stakeholder Consultation Report confirms the public want an end to logging public native forests.”
“The Stakeholder Consultation Report for NSW’s Forestry Industry Action Plan (FIAP) raises more questions than it answers, though with 70% of submissions expressing support for ending native forestry it confirms that most people want an end to this archaic and destructive industry.
The Stakeholder Consultation Report by the Independent Forestry Panel was intended to summarise community attitudes towards public native forestry as an input to the NSW Forestry Industry Action Plan (FIAP). (1)
“This report demonstrates that a logging industry review is not appropriate for deciding whether we end logging of public native forests and instead protect them for wildlife, carbon sequestration, recreation, tourism and water”, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.
“As two of the three panel members have forestry backgrounds it is unsurprising that their industry biases are evident throughout the report, with a variety of industry positions wrongly intimated to be generally supported by most submitters.” (2)
“In other instances key issues raised by conservationists are not considered.
“Generally the report tries to downplay the fact that 70% of submissions expressed support for ending native forestry in NSW, with this admission buried away on page 42 of the report.
“Some of their reporting is bizarre, for a variety of issues they report on whether they were raised more or less often in industry submissions compared to “all stakeholder groups”, with no indication of what any groups’ opinions were on that issue (section 4.1).
“Overall the report highlights some of the conflicting opinions and views between the general community and the timber industry, without resolving any of them.
“They say these will need to be resolved by the Forestry Industry Action Plan (FIAP), though it is evident that this process is not designed to answer the fundamental question of whether we log or protect our public native forests.
“Time and time again opinion polls have shown that the majority of the community want public native forests protected for wildlife, carbon sequestration, recreation, tourism and water.
“It is not appropriate that this continues to be viewed through a logging industry lens, the NSW Government needs to make a decision based on a wholistic consideration of all values, and the growing threats of climate change and wildfires.
“Now that the Commonwealth has identified that we need to protect most State Forests in order to honour their commitment to protect 30% of Australia by 2030, it is evident that it is time to stop paying to log our public native forests” Mr. Pugh said. (3)
(2) Peter Duncan was once a Managing Director of Forests NSW and Mick Veitch was once a Parliamentary Secretary, and later a Shadow Minister, for Primary Industries
