Brumby Government opens door to woodchipping in Central Victoria
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Media release
Environment groups are alarmed at a Brumby Government decision that opens the door to woodchipping of state forests in Central Victoria by handing over timber rights in the region to VicForests.
"High conservation value forests across central and western Victoria are being targeted by VicForests," Victorian National Parks Association spokesman Nick Roberts said today.
An allocation order giving VicForests access to timber from central and western Victoria was quietly posted on the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) website in March without any public consultation.
The order grants VicForests - the discredited state-owned timber company - ownership of the region's timber for fifteen years, commencing in 2012, to make up for a shortfall in timber supplies due to recent bushfires in eastern Victorian forests.
"This is a sneaky policy backflip by the Brumby Government that reverses a policy commitment made in the Victorian Timber Industry Strategy just last year," Mr Roberts said.
The strategy clearly ruled out any role for VicForests in western and central Victoria.
"The government's recent land and biodiversity White Paper identified these forests as environmental flagships needing 'protection and enhancement', but now they're being handed over to the woodchippers," he said.
The Wilderness Society's forest campaigner Luke Chamberlain says this is yet another sign that VicForests' woodchipping operations are unsustainable, and that they are running out of timber in other parts of Victoria.
"There are huge areas of plantations ready to come on line in western Victoria over the coming years, that's where the woodchip industry needs to shift to, instead of decimating Central Victoria's native forests as they have done in the east."
The region's forests are currently managed by the Department of Sustainability and Environment, and only limited logging is allowed, mainly for firewood. VicForests supplies most of its timber to woodchipping companies.
The groups are calling on Premier John Brumby to categorically rule out woodchipping or increased logging of these precious forests, and ensure that VicForests play no role in their future.
For comment contact:
- Nick Roberts, VNPA on 0429 945 429.
- Luke Chamberlain, The Wilderness Society - 0424 098 729.
- For media assistance please contact Louise Matthiesson - 0417 017 844.
Allocation order granting timber rights to VicForests Victorian Timber Industry Strategy (see page 41) VNPA 'Small Parks' for Central Victoria Regional community groups shocked - media release