A Fringe of Green – Protecting Australia’s Forests and Woodlands
Australia’s forests cling to the edge of the driest inhabited continent on earth, yet they are some of the most magnificent and biodiverse on the planet. We can still stand in awe under some of the world’s tallest trees, towering above the rainforest in Tasmania’s Styx Valley, or sit and listen to the songs of countless birds in the dry Ironbark forests of western NSW.
Home to more than half our terrestrial biodiversity1, loved by people and communities all around Australia, forests have become a symbol of our passion to protect the natural environment. Concern for our forests has prompted more people, from more walks of life, to take a stand for their protection than any other single environmental issue.
Decades of campaigning for forest protection have secured the future of many beautiful and important Australian forests, but the threats to unprotected forests have never been greater. The year 2000 saw exports of woodchips from native forests reach a staggering seven million tonnes2. Now, an almost unbelievable new threat has emerged: the burning of forests for power generation.
Time is running out for Australia’s precious fringe of green.
AUSTRALIA’S LAST FORESTS AND WOODLANDS
Since European settlement half Australia’s forests have been cleared, so that now only five percent of the country has any forest cover at all3. Only ten percent of the pre-settlement old growth forest remains4.
Our forests once resembled a sea of old growth with islands of disturbance and regrowth. Today it is the reverse – islands of old growth are mere dots in a sea of regrowth or clearfelled land. The fewer and smaller these islands become, the more Australia’s forest wildlife will lose its best, and often only, habitat.
The loss of southern temperate woodlands has been extreme. Over 85 percent have been completely cleared5. Between 12 and 15 billion trees have been lost from the Murray-Darling basin alone6. Old growth woodlands are now extremely rare – less than 100 hectares are left in Victoria, for example7 – and the condition of the remaining woodlands in southern Australia is poor. Unsustainable logging, firewood removal and over-grazing threaten much of what is left.
Australia’s woodlands are being cleared at the rate of five thousand square kilometres per year8, and our forests logged at the rate of two thousand square kilometres per year9.
Map of original and present forest and woodland
WHY SAVE WHAT’S LEFT?
More than one-twentieth of the world’s plant and animal species live in Australia’s forests and woodlands – more species than survive in all of Europe10.
Over half Australia’s land animals and three-quarters of our plants live in forests and woodlands11, but less than one-fifth of our forests12 and only a tiny percentage of our woodlands are protected in secure reserves. Protected forests that have not been logged cover just one-third of one percent of Australia’s land area13.
As long ago as 1992, a Federal Government Inquiry noted that “…logging old growth forest potentially violates the precautionary principle in that an irreplaceable resource is being destroyed.” 14 The same Inquiry recommended that legislative protection should be afforded to all remaining wilderness, as “…areas of wilderness quality will become increasingly rare and of increasing value….”15
Few areas of forested wilderness remain. Forests that occur in wild, remote country and have had minimal European disturbance are of immense benefit to humanity. They include places such as Tasmania’s South West and Tarkine, the Walpole wilderness in WA, and forests of the Deua, Badja and Chaleundi in NSW.
Healthy old growth forests are crucial to the long-term, consistent supply of high quality water to cities, towns, farms and aquatic ecosystems. Water stored by, and slowly released by forests is of the highest economic value. A recent report valued the water released by the forests of the south coast of NSW at over $1.6 billion annually16. Another study, in Melbourne’s water catchment, found that water flows can drop by up to 50 percent after logging17.
Healthy woodlands have the added benefit of keeping salinity at bay in agricultural areas.
The Government has estimated that Australia’s forests store 13 billion tonnes of carbon18 and that, every year, logging and firewood collection release over 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere19. (Recent research indicates that the amount of carbon stored in our native forests is at least three to five times greater than these estimates; the impact of logging is therefore likely to be that much more20.) Clearing woodlands is a major contributor to Australia’s greenhouse gas pollution.
Forests and woodlands provide many other economic and non-economic values – from honey and medicinal products to tourism and recreation. In most areas, the value of forests for tourism and recreation alone is greater than logging revenue; in the southern region of NSW, for example, forest-based tourism is worth approximately three times the value of the logging industry21.
But most of all, our forests are places that inspire and rejuvenate us all – nurturing us as well as the delicate ferns and mosses on the forest floor, or connecting us to timeless grandeur as we touch the tallest flowering plants on Earth (ie Eucalyptus regnans, Styx Valley, Tasmania).
THREATS
Logging and Woodchipping
Native forests and woodlands have never been logged in an ecologically sustainable manner and there is no evidence that they ever will be. For example: Greater Gliders need a minimum of six large hollow-bearing trees per hectare to survive22; current logging guidelines in East Gippsland allow for the retention of only 0.3 hollow-bearing trees per hectare.
Commercial goals drive logging companies and state forest management agencies to minimise costs. These cost pressures drive the practice of clearfelling and woodchipping forests.
Most of the trees cut down when an area is clearfelled are described by the logging industry as ‘waste’ – in other words, trees that have no profitable market other than woodchipping. Branches, butts and many whole trees are left on the ground to be burnt.
In some areas of Australia, for example in Tasmania, parts of southern NSW and East Gippsland in Victoria, 90 percent or more of the trees cut down are referred to as waste and are woodchipped.
‘Integrated harvesting’ is another term used by the logging industry as a euphemism for clearfelling.
Native forest sawn timber must compete with more efficient plantation timber. Sustainably managing a plantation is a lot less expensive than sustainably managing a native forest to protect all its natural values.
In every state, the only way native forest products can compete with their plantation counterparts is through heavy public (including environmental) subsidies. The biggest form of subsidy is through low royalties. In parts of East Gippsland royalties are known to have dropped to a disgraceful nine cents per tonne!23
The devastation wrought by the woodchip industry has not just been ecological. Many craft workers and fine furniture manufacturers, including boat builders, have witnessed the squandering of a resource and the dramatic reduction or elimination of native timbers available for their industries.
The Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process has seen a dramatic increase in the volume of native forest woodchip exports, particularly in Tasmania and Victoria.
The impact in Tasmania has been devastating. In the September quarter of 2000, production of native forest woodchips in Tasmania reached 1.45 million tonnes (the equivalent of 5.8 million tonnes per year) 24. Tasmania exports more native forest woodchips than all the other states combined.
Instead of treading more lightly on the forests, the impacts of industrial logging are intensifying.
Burning Forests For Power and Charcoal
Returning to the Dark Ages for lighting and heating seems improbable in a ‘high tech’ age concerned about global warming. Incredibly, there is now every probability that large volumes of native forest wood will be burned for electricity generation in the name of ‘renewable energy’ – and as part of Australia’s greenhouse gas abatement program!
This step has been facilitated by the passage of the Commonwealth Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000. Supported by both Federal Labor and Liberals, the Act obliges electricity companies to produce two percent of their energy from renewable sources and contains penalties for failure to comply. Wood will be a less expensive option than solar or wind-powered generation.
In NSW alone, the Government estimates that up to two million tonnes of wood could be burned each year25. (NSW currently exports around 500,000 tonnes of native forest woodchips per year.)
At least two power stations to burn ‘biomass’ containing wood have been proposed for Queensland. Three proposals have come forward in Victoria, three in NSW and two in Tasmania.
Burning native forest wood for power generation is at least as bad for the greenhouse gas abatement program, and far more damaging for wildlife, than burning coal.
The only good news is that de-regulation of the energy sector will allow consumers to choose their energy retailer and producer. In NSW, the Sustainable Energy Development Authority has excluded electricity generated by native forest wood from its nationally accredited Green Power scheme.
Western Australians have witnessed the destruction of large areas of old growth jarrah for charcoal production by Japanese corporation Simcoa. After enormous public pressure, Simcoa decided it will no longer use old growth jarrah.
On the east coast, a source of wood for charcoal production is now being sought to supply a silica smelter planned for Lithgow in NSW. The forests of East Gippsland, southern NSW and Queensland are all being considered.
Clearing
In Tasmania, forests are being cleared at the rate of 15,000ha a year for plantation establishment, using Commonwealth Government funds26. Proportionally, Tasmania has the highest rate of land clearing in Australia. It is the only state that still allows rainforest logging and clearing.
In Queensland, the latest figures indicate that 425,000ha (4,250 square kilometres) are cleared annually, about two-thirds being virgin bushland27. Clearing woodlands in Queensland is arguably the greatest threat to biodiversity in Australia today.
Despite having clearing controls in place, illegal as well as ‘legal’ clearing continues in NSW. While there is relatively little left to clear, 60,000 to 100,000ha of NSW woodland is being cleared annually for crops and plantations28.
COMMONLY RAISED ISSUES
Is Logging Increasing the Likelihood of Extinctions?
At least 113 endangered or threatened wildlife species live in Australia’s forests29. For many of these species, logging is the main threat to their survival. Intensive logging removes most of the habitat, including the nesting sites and food sources they need to survive.
“There are localised extinctions occurring due to current forestry practices and there is a significant risk of future global extinctions.” * Professor Tony Norton, RMIT; Professor Hugh Possingham, University of Adelaide; Professor Harry F. Recher, Edith Cowan University30.
“It is a scientific fact that increasing the area that is logged in any region will increase the probability that forest dependent fauna and flora will become extinct.” * Professor Hugh Possingham, University of Adelaide31.
Species threatened by logging include the Koala, Sooty Owl, Glossy Black Cockatoo, Yellow-bellied Glider, Chuditch, Numbat, Leadbeater’s Possum, Mount Baw Baw Frog, Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle and Spotted-tailed Quoll, to name but a few32.
A wave of bird extinctions is occurring in our woodlands, with 67 species listed as rare, threatened or endangered33. Dozens more are in decline.
What is Old Growth Forest and Why is it Important?
Old growth is a term used to describe forest which has had little human disturbance and is ecologically mature. Containing many big, old trees, it provides the best habitat for the widest range of species. Therefore, it is the most important ecosystem for biodiversity conservation.
Trees re-grown after logging, then logged again after 30 to 100 years, cannot provide this habitat.
Big, old trees (on average 250 to 500 years old) play a very special role in forest ecosystems. They supply superior food resources and contain naturally formed hollows which provide homes for an estimated 400 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs34.
Hollows don’t start to form in trees until they are between 100 and 150 years old35.
Scientists have calculated that it could take between 1,500 and 2,500 years for a clearfelled forest to regain all the structural and habitat features of the original36.
In some parts of Australia, climate changes make it unlikely that logged forests will ever be able to be restored.
Just ten percent of Australia’s original old growth forests remain today37. Half are unprotected and targeted for intensive logging and woodchipping38.
What is the Relationship Between Logging and Fire?
Old growth and mature forests contain natural barriers to fire. They contain big fire resistant trees, plus moist features such as rotting logs, moss and a damp humus layer.
Logging replaces this fire suppressing forest with fire-prone regrowth. The moist, protective covering on the soil is destroyed and small densely packed regrowth trees act like kindling. Logging roads greatly increase fire risk.
Clearfelling a forest does not mimic the impact of natural fires. Very rarely would a fire be so hot that it would destroy all mature trees. Most forests recover quickly from fire, providing high quality habitat in a relatively short time frame (not the 100 or more years needed to recover from logging). Even when trees are killed by fire, they remain standing and provide nest sites; eventually, they fall to the forest floor to nourish and shelter ground-dwelling animals.
Forest managers use high temperature burns after logging to suppress unwanted species – such as rainforest plants – and to encourage the regeneration of commercial species. Together with the poisoning of wildlife with 1080 to stop them eating seedlings, the impacts on forest fauna and flora are severe 39. Unnatural fires break the natural processes of succession where, in very wet forests, rainforest will mature under eucalypts over a 300 – 400 year period.
Where do we Get Our Wood?
The sawn timber industry is in the midst of major and inexorable structural changes.
The native forest hardwood sawmilling industry is in decline, with lower levels of employment, fewer operating mills and declining production. By contrast, the plantation softwood sawmilling industry is expanding rapidly, with increased production based upon large scale, capital-intensive production facilities.
The production of sawn native hardwood timber has halved over a 40-year period40, standing at 1.3 million cubic metres in 200041. The production of plantation softwood has increased almost fourfold over the same period, to stand at 2.5 million cubic metres in 200042.
Industry analysts predict that, in the next decade, supplies of native forest hardwoods will decline even more dramatically, while supplies of plantation softwood will continue to increase.
Native forest hardwood and plantation softwood are in direct competition for almost all building applications. Plantation softwood products are steadily, and in some cases quite dramatically, increasing their market share at the expense of native forest hardwood.
Today, there are no technical limits to the substitution of plantation softwood products for native forest hardwood.
By 1999, 80 percent of the wood used for furniture manufacture in Australia came from softwood plantations and only nine percent from native forest hardwood43.
Australia has enough existing, mature plantation timber to satisfy all domestic building requirements. We are heading for a surplus of plantation wood that should sensibly be further processed in Australia for export, providing secure, value-adding jobs and the opportunity to end the woodchipping and clearfelling of our native forests.
Logging old growth forests could end without fuss today if we linked expanded processing of our existing plantations to saving native forests.
Are There Problems With Plantations?
We already have enough softwood and hardwood plantations to meet all our domestic timber needs; to immediately stop logging our old growth forests; and to rapidly phase out the clearfelling and woodchipping of our native forests. The Wilderness Society is encouraging the use of existing plantations for our timber needs, instead of native forests.
Recent plantation establishment, particularly in Tasmania, has been marked by appalling disregard for community and environmental well-being. Encouraged by perverse Commonwealth greenhouse policies, plantations are now replacing native forests and woodlands in the name of greenhouse solutions.
There are many examples of poor, environmentally destructive plantation establishment and management practices. These include clearing native forests and woodlands; use of pesticides and fertilisers; failure to protect streams and water catchments; soil erosion on steep slopes; and genetically modified trees are among the many issues of concern.
There are no sustainability standards in Australia for agricultural crops. A standard for tree crops should be developed, with strong community and conservation input.
Increasingly, the environment movement is seeking to develop sustainability criteria to differentiate between plantations. It is likely that the environment movement will boycott plantation timber known to be sourced from areas that were native forest in 1990.
WHAT IS THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY (TWS) DOING TO HELP SAVE AUSTRALIA’S FORESTS AND WOODLANDS?
With the exception of the Beattie Government in Queensland and the Gallop Government in WA, governments of all political persuasions have failed when dealing with the forest issue, and no government has acted to prevent woodland clearing – let alone establish an appropriate woodland reserve system.
Government initiatives, such as the RFA process, have consumed hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars to generate a substantial increase in woodchipping and more intensive logging. Most governments have utterly failed to protect our old growth, wilderness and other forests essential for the survival of forest wildlife. Scientific and community concern remains high.The failure of political processes to protect forests has led to the development of many new campaign strategies. Campaigning to save our forests and woodlands has never been more sophisticated.
Shareholder Groups Bring Pressure to Bear on Logging and Woodchipping activities.
Wesfarmers, North Ltd and Gunns all have active shareholder groups formed by TWS. PaperlinX (formerly Amcor) and Boral have strong shareholder groups formed, respectively, by Environment Victoria and ACF. There is strong evidence that the bigger and more established these groups become, the more impact they have on changing company directions.
Under campaign pressure from TWS, other conservation groups and Boral Green Shareholders, Boral sold its Queensland logging operation to the Queensland Government, who then closed it down. Boral re-named and separately listed its energy division; and its remaining logging interests have either been sold or are on the market.
Consumer Pressure has Increased.
Developed in Western Australia, the Buy-pass Bunnings campaign is particularly effective. In Victoria, TWS regularly has information stands outside Bunnings’ Melbourne stores, outlining the effect the company’s logging operations have on WA’s forests. Customers are urged to buy plantation alternatives. As a result, Wesfarmers Bunnings has sold its WA woodchipping operations, and plantations are substantially replacing the woodchipping of WA’s native forests.
New Partnerships Have Been Forged to Help Achieve Forest Protection.
In NSW, Victoria and WA, TWS has been working with local councils to encourage ‘ethical purchasing’ and alternatives to using native forest timber
In 2000, the NSW Local Government and Shires Association passed a resolution that:
“…having regard to council’s statutory obligation under the Local Government Act to have regard to the principles of ecological sustainable development, this conference resolves that member councils have no new direct commercial dealings with any commercial entity, which in their view has a significant involvement in the woodchipping of Australian native forests.”44
Many individual councils have passed similar resolutions. Local councils control 16 billion dollars of public expenditure each year45.
Perhaps the least expected and most important ‘partnership’ of all is reflected in the South East Queensland Forest Agreement. In September, 1999, the Queensland Timber Board, The Australian Rainforest Conservation Society, The Wilderness Society, The Queensland Conservation Council and the Queensland Government agreed to46:
the immediate cessation of old growth logging in south-east Queensland;
immediately protect 60 percent of south-east Queensland’s crown native forests in the reserve system (425,000ha);
give interim protection to a further 17 percent of crown native forests;
allow one more cut of the remaining 23 percent of crown native forests as part of phasing out crown native forest logging over 25 years.
The agreement was made possible by the Queensland Government agreeing to purchase Boral’s logging operations and to close them by September 2000. Overall, jobs were substantially increased – by a net 370. Increased processing of existing plantations generated most of these jobs; and a small area of already cleared farmland is now being planted to ensure the ongoing availability of hardwood timber.
Avenues for Increasing International Pressure to Save our Old Growth Forests Have Been Expanded.
A small team from TWS WA visited Japan in 2000 to address a range of community, business and political organisations. The result was a stunning rebuff to Australian woodchip companies and governments engaged in the destruction of old growth forests from the 30 million members of Consumers Japan. Japan’s largest consumer organisation wrote to each woodchip company and government in Australia requesting that no old growth forest be destroyed to supply Japanese paper manufacturers, asking that existing Blue Gum plantations be used instead.
Traditional Avenues for Building Community Support Have Been Strengthened, Leading to Broader, More Effective Mobilisation of Community Concern.
TWS operates commercially licensed tours into Tasmania’s Styx Valley, providing access to areas off limit to the general public. People from all over the world are now viewing the magnificent tall forests – and the devastation left by the woodchip industry. Ironically, the tours were highly commended by the Prime Minister in his inaugural Environment Awards. He seemed to have forgotten his role in allowing the ancient forests of the Styx to be clearfelled.
Media exposure about the Styx, including a 60 Minutes report and a Good Weekend cover story, has aroused widespread interest.
There are also regular tours through the Central Highlands of Victoria, where a campaign to protect Melbourne’s water catchment has received strong community support, including support from the highly effective lobby group, Doctors for Native Forests.
TWS forest campaigns also receive invaluable support from high-profile public personalities, such as John Williamson, Liz Davenport, Mick Malthouse and Kate Cebrano.
Political Pressure Can Still Deliver Spectacular Results
The strength of community support for the protection of old growth forests has been resoundingly demonstrated in Western Australia, where the Gallop Labor team was elected on a platform of immediately ending old growth logging and protecting 25 percent of state forests in 30 new national parks.
Building on the highly successful campaign work of WAFA, TWS and the WA Conservation Council, a five-month election campaign strategy coordinated by TWS pushed the issue of old growth protection into the top three election issues.
Intensive community work was carried out in 12 key electorates. A sophisticated public information and advertising campaign culminated in the handing out of ‘Vote Forests’ cards in 11 electorates on polling day. Unprecedented support from 800 volunteers made this possible.
The campaign and the issue of old growth forest protection has been acknowledged by Labor as a major factor in the party’s electoral success.
Following Peter Beattie’s successful lead in Queensland, Geoff Gallop has abandoned the failed RFA process – instead developing innovative solutions to meet community expectations, including maximising the use of existing plantations to increase jobs in the timber industry.
Direct Action Will Always Play an Important Role in Focusing Attention on the Fate of Our Native Forests
In Tasmania, for example, TWS achieved worldwide fame for the tall trees of the Styx Valley by stringing 10,000 fairy lights to the top of a giant Eucalyptus regnans (77 metres tall) and crowning it with a brilliant star, creating the world’s tallest Christmas tree. Pressure is mounting Australia-wide to save these globally unique forests.
Together with other conservative groups, TWS has staged ‘Forest Rescues’ in VIC, NSW and WA, which have helped to re-invigorate community pressure for forest protection.
Joint Campaign Work With Other Conservation Groups is an Important Part of all Forest Campaigning
A combined groups campaign team, in which TWS played a strong role, was instrumental in achieving protection for 325,000ha of some of the best forest in southern NSW47.
Cooperative campaigning in NSW is now firmly focused on securing protection for the remaining forested wilderness and preventing the burning of native forest wood for electricity generation.
WOODLANDS
In NSW, The Wilderness Society is working with state and local conservation groups to ensure that an effective conservation reserve system is set up for the western woodlands. (The unique ecosystem of Ironbark, Callitris Pine, Box and Red Gum woodlands is so poorly protected that birds such as the Crested Bellbird and Mallee Fowl are simply disappearing.) TWS is campaigning for a reserve system that will guarantee the survival of our precious woodland birds, mammals and reptiles, and form the core areas around which the biodiversity of the Central West can be restored.
A major new focus is the strengthening of the campaign to protect Queensland’s woodlands.
One Stop Timber Shop
Tel: 1300 76 77 88
http://www.timbershop.wilderness.org.au
Perhaps the most innovative solution to help save Australia’s forests and woodlands will come through the development of the One Stop Timber Shop.
The One Stop Timber Shop is an information and advice resource designed to put environmentally aware consumers in touch with suppliers of environmentally preferable wood and paper products. Available over the phone or on the internet, the One Stop Timber Shop links environmentally preferable enterprises and products to professional and lay consumers around Australia.
The concept includes and expands upon the information provided in the book Forest-Friendly Building Timbers, published by Earth Garden48. The site has many unique features: a forest-friendly product guide; a searchable database on recycled timbers; directories of forest-friendly firewood; the Timbershop classifieds; and links to other resources.
Developed with construction industry and architectural professionals, the resource has something to offer everyone, whether it’s for a patio or office paper. By using the service all consumers can contribute to saving our native forests.
Development of the One Stop Timber Shop is assisted by a grant from Eco-Recycle in Victoria. We are confident that, over time, other partners will join in supporting and expanding this important project.
WHAT ARE THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY’S LONG-TERM CAMPAIGN GOALS?
All remaining old growth, wilderness, rainforest and habitat of rare, threatened and endangered species must be protected in secure reserves.
We will need to restore damaged forests and reafforest areas of cleared land if many native species are to have a secure future.
Increasing the areas and connectivity of old growth forests and woodlands, is a conservation necessity.
The Wilderness Society’s WildCountry project will play a crucial role in achieving these long-term goals.