ABC1’s 7.30 Report has revealed the harsh line the Greens party is taking unless groups that claim to advance environmental interests support its positions. Source: The Australian
The 7.30 story quoted Christine Milne declaring that Planet Ark could not endorse a marketing program run by a government-financed Forest Wood Products Research and Development Corporation that demonstrated timber products were sustainable.
She railed that Planet Ark was endorsing the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS), which sets standards to enable timber businesses to demonstrate their practices are sustainable.
Milne described the standard as “dodgy”, said it had no credibility and no one respected it. She maintained the only acceptable standard was that set by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a body set up by WWF.
Yet the website of the program endorsed by Planet Ark shows the forestry industry body endorses both forestry schemes. It also showed the AFS scheme certified 8.5 million hectares of Australian forest.
The FSC scheme preferred by the Greens certified only 0.75 million hectares, whereas Worldwide the global scheme whose standards AFS follows, the Program for the Evaluation of Forest Certification, certifies twice the amount of forest as FSC.
The AFS that Planet Ark promotes is described as world’s best practice. It was created under the rules of Standards Australia, the national standard-setting body and follows the standards of the International Standards Organisation.
The FSC system which Milne prefers, does not meet AFS principles, the key reason being that the FSC is run by WWF and its green associates, including Greenpeace as a member. FSC can change its standard at will but the rules of Standards Australia do not permit this. Any change to its standards requires consensus among all parties.
When Milne said AFS is “not credible” and “not respected”, forest industry sources have responded saying this simply means the Greens disapprove because of ideology, and oppose approaches that create jobs and foster sustainability.
Greens policy opposes logging in native forests and supports the FSC standard because it effectively rules logging out, which is WWF policy worldwide. In Australia vast tracts of forest are already set aside for conservation. This was decreed nearly 20 years ago under the national forest agreements negotiated by the Keating government.
Australian law requires that when native forest is logged, management must provide for regrowth, creating a fresh forest environment for relogging in the future. This is seen as world’s best practice and balance of protection for biodiversity and sustainable harvesting of forest products. It is also claimed to be the most effective and cheapest way to sequester carbon.
With the Greens demanding that forests be locked up rather than accepting sustainably management and harvesting, Tasmania is now feeling the crunch from closing down much of its forest industry. Real challenges facing the state include significant loss of regional employment and small business interruption, and the real potential of increased fire risks from build-up of fuel stocks.
