Scott McArdle is blunt. “Gippsland’s forests need our help. Fire, floods, storms, drought, pests, weeds, neglect, exploitation and the changing climate are all taking a huge toll but if we all work together, the future can be different.” Source: Australian Rural & Regional News
Mr McArdle is the executive officer of a new group, the Gippsland Forest Dialogue (GFD), that aims to do just that – meet the challenges facing the region’s forests and find ways to move forward. Mr McArdle, previously with Agriculture Victoria and the Latrobe Valley Authority, runs his own sustainable development consultancy.
The group acknowledges the unique role and rights of the Indigenous peoples of Gippsland, their relationship to ‘Country’ and their cultural objectives. “We seek to include everyone with a stake in Gippsland’s forests,” said Mr McArdle, who is based in Warragul.
“We invite residents, farmers, tourism operators, timber businesses and business associations, bush stewards, tourists, environment groups, fire managers, community groups and recreationists to be part of the Dialogue.”
GFD aims to look at all forest tenures – state forests, national parks, plantations, farm trees and private land conservation. “We will consider biodiversity, forestry, water, recreation, tourism, industry and bushfire risk management as fundamentally interconnected and interdependent parts of our forests,” Mr McArdle said.
The movement has been inspired and supported by an international example – ‘The Forests Dialogue’ (TFD), which is hosted by Yale University. TFD has held more than 90 dialogues across the world over the past 20 years. These usually consist of field trips, presentations and discussions, working to break deadlocks and create real, meaningful change.
Gippsland is the first Australian region to start a Forest Dialogue.
Mr McArdle emphasised that the Dialogue was independent and local, with no government funding or preconceived decisions or agendas. No one group or sector was favoured over the other. “The aim is to build trust,” he said.
The GFD is currently piloted by an advisory group formed from people across the region. Mr McArdle said these were people he would not have the opportunity to talk to. They include John Mitchell, a former chief executive of Traralgon City, Latrobe City and Gippsland Water; Melbourne University forestry professor, Rod Keenan; Ewan Waller, Victoria’s former chief fire officer and chair of the East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority; and Wendy Wright, Professor of Conservation Biology at Federation University.
In a statement of support for GFD, Mr Mitchell said an effective Dialogue would improve greater understanding of our forest assets and the many aspects of interconnectedness of our environment and economy, leading to improved natural resource management policy.
Professor Wright said arguments around how forests should be ‘managed’, ‘used’ or ‘protected’ had been polarised and unhelpful for decades. “We need a new way forward; one which places the forests at the centre of the discussion and considers them as interconnected living systems, with histories and futures,” she said.
Mr McArdle said the Dialogue was not about production forests, but “what’s best for the health and resilience of our forests”. “Start with that and work out from there. As soon as you talk about production forests, or ecology v industry, the fracture lines start,” he said.
“National parks – fire does not see the boundaries of national parks. All forest is potentially at risk as well.”
Mr McArdle said the idea was to get a dialogue going that was non-threatening. “The aim is for people to feel safe; they can talk to each other, not representing pre-conceived positions, inquiring minds that think, ‘I don’t have to go down the ‘party line’ or business line’,” he said.
“Let’s look more at solutions, see what the fracture lines are, see what we agree with (for example) on fires, then work to see whether there is a way forward and get bipartisan in a community sense – it’s a powerful tool to take to government.”
The first Dialogue will take place this month at Rawson Village. “It will be based around field trips and getting to know each other better on a bus trip, talking rather than in a classroom or lecture theatre, breaking the ice,” Mr McArdle said.
Seeing the impacts of fire, visiting forest coupes that have been thinned or harvested over two or three different periods. “See them for yourself, see what that has created – and go back and discuss,” he said.
Website – www.gfd.org.au
