Mood:
energeticTopic: ecology
News over the intertubes of a protest action today about NSW Govt forest destruction with these pictures:
2010 - the Year of Biodiversity Destruction
Conservationists have stopped logging today in Compartment 63 of South
Brooman State Forest, between Ulladulla and Batemans Bay and are calling
on the NSW Premier to halt logging. The conservationists state Forests
NSW are logging rainforest in the compartment and destroying threatened
species habitat. The conservationists have tied three machines to a tree
sit forty metres above the ground.
An assurance was given to the community with the signing of the Regional
Forest Agreements that Forests NSW would ensure damage to threatened
species habitat is mitigated, yet the evidence of habitat destruction in
Compartment 62 and 63, that were earmarked for protection by the
community, clearly shows the law is not being implemented. Spotted-tailed
Quolls are escaping to nearby private properties as their habitat is being
destroyed, which is particularly alarming as Forests NSW pre-logging fauna
surveys failed to identify these animals as being present in the area.
"Forests NSW are breaching native forest management strategies and
wilfully ignoring their own legislated regulations," said Lisa Stone from
South East Forest Rescue. "This action draws attention to the fact that
human induced climate change is the greatest threat to life on earth
today."
Today's deadline to the Copenhagen Accord saw nations come forward with
their final emissions reduction targets. Australia has confirmed its
submission of a mere five per cent cut of 2000 emission levels by 2020.
The failure of the Rudd government to deliver any meaningful protection to
Australian native forests, by refusing to submit a specific target, let
alone a higher target, means they are committing a self-defeating
prophesy.
The International Panel on Climate Change has identified that around 50%
of the total mitigation potential of greenhouse gas emissions could be
reached by limiting emissions from deforestation. Given the amount of
emissions calculated it would seem that one way Australia could easily
limit it's GHGs is by ending native forest logging.
"The protection of our native forests is of urgent national and
international importance in times of global climate chaos," said Tony
Whan, also from South East Forest Rescue. "Forests NSW have admitted they
are rorting the Regional Forest Agreements in the latest Standing
Committees 'Return of the Ark ' Report, by saying the 20-year wood supply
commitments to industry are framed so 'long-term (i.e. 100-200 years)
sustainable yield is not exceeded', which means they are logging a hundred
or two hundred years worth of trees in twenty years, and yet the public is
told time and again that this is sustainable."
The governmental practice of decrying developing countries' illegal
logging while sanctioning illegal logging in Australia has not gone
unnoticed by the rest of the world. Australia is only now, slowly, coming
in from the cold. After eleven years of ridicule from international
quarters the government has the chance to gain international respect if
the right decisions are made.
The US submitted their own goal to the Accord, pledging to cut emissions
"in the range of 17 per cent" of 2005 levels, with plans to reach a 30 per
cent cut by 2025.
"We are sending a clear message to the NSW and Federal Governments that
they must fulfil their international obligations on climate change by
protecting their remaining carbon sinks," said Ms Stone. "Forests NSW
have fudged the books when it comes to reporting their greenhouse gas
emissions. We call on the State and Federal Governments to prove that
political will is not extinct and put an end to native forest logging, for
us and our children's future."
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1/2/10
For more info please ring Lisa or Tony on 0428 640 271.
