A petition urging the Western Australian parliament to properly explain the State Government’s decision to close the native forest timber industry is being circulated by the WA arm of WoodSolutions. Source: Timberbiz
Timber Insight has launched the petition which even goes further by asking for a review of the science behind the State Government’s claims on native forestry, to understand the costs and benefits of their policy, to examine alternative policy options that could keep the native forest industry alive, and to examine why mining in forests (and land clearing for roads and housing estates) is treated differently from timber harvesting.
The WA Government announced 12 months ago that native forestry harvesting would cease from 2024.
Despite being promised a Just Transition Plan by the State Government, Forest Industries Federation WA (FIFWA) Chief Executive Officer Adele Farina says businesses remain as unsure now as they were when they were blindsided with the shocking announcement.
The native timber industry received no advance notification from government of its intention to close the industry, was not provided an opportunity to comment and is still waiting on the government to release the science supporting its decision.
Timing to sign the petition is short, to coincide with the release of the draft Forest Management Plan in WA under preparation by DBCA.
The petition can be found at https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/LCePetitions.nsf/petitions/22-0024
