Last June the Federal Government dissolved the national network of 19 Private Forestry Development Committees (PFDCs), regional groups whose key objective was to put trees back into over-cleared farm land. The philosophy behind PFDCs aligns with the concept of ‘teaching someone to catch a fish, rather than giving them a fish’ – in this case helping farmers to implement self-funded, profitable tree-growing options, rather than dispensing one-off lumps of money to plant trees. Sadly, the shoestring financial backing has resulted in the long-held vision of seeing farms with significant tree cover, producing multiple benefits for the environment, the farm business and combating climate change suffering a major set-back.
The question is … who will put trees back on farms now?
This alarming development is covered in the coming edition of Australian Forests & Timber News (which includes the re-launch of Timberman).
