Native forest logging tied up in courts with timber to run out within a year
Hundreds of timber industry jobs are at risk, as environmental groups use the courts to lock loggers out of their coupes.
GREEN lawfare is set to strangle Victoria’s timber industry within two years, well before the Andrews Government’s delivers on its promise to phase out of native forest logging by 2030.
That’s the warning from timber industry VicForests, consultants and loggers as they count the cost of environmental groups mounting legal action that has led to injunctions and court rulings that have locked up some of their most valuable coupes.
“We will run out of harvestable coupes with 12 months because of these court cases,” fifth generation Central Highlands harvest and haulage contractor Brett Robin said.
“How is it that we can’t survive, when all we’re doing is harvesting plants and replacing them? It’s just wrong.”
VicForests has lost access to 66 coupes in the Central Highlands due to legal action by the Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum, with the Federal Court ruling in May that some Central Highlands logging operation failed to comply with the Victorian Code of Practice for Timber Production.
Forestry Minister Jaclyn Symes and Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio have since responded by promising to review the Code to “minimise the risk to short-term supply obligations arising from third-party litigation”.
Of major concern is ambiguities in how the code’s precautionary principle is applied – “to avoid serious or irreversible damage to the environment”.
Yet, after almost three months, The Weekly Times has learned the Ministers’ review has failed to close major loopholes in the code, leaving the timber industry exposed to what it calls “green lawfare”.
“It does nothing,” one timber industry source said. “Right now VicForests won’t even make it to 2022 (in meeting supplies).”
The Weekly Times understands VicForests’ board has seen the code review, but is now left with no options on how it maintains supply in the face of court challenges from groups such as FoLP, Wildlife of the Central Highlands and Kinglake Friends of the Forest.
As it stands the Government’s Victorian Forestry Plan is no more than a three-page document, which aims to gradually transition native forest and timber workers to plantation forestry by 2030.
Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union National Secretary Michael O’Connor has labelled the plan “shambolic”.
“It is beyond comprehension that despite massive bushfires last summer and COVID-19 that no one in government concedes their dud plan needs even a tweak let alone the comprehensive reset it requires.”
MORE
‘No one knew it was coming’: Tongala cow abattoir shuts
The livestock industry and local community have reacted to Greenham’s closure of its Tongala cow processing plant.
Victorians want to feel guilt-free about eating meat
Research – to guide a Victorian Government-funded pro-agriculture campaign – has revealed how consumers feel about the state’s farmers and what issues need to be addressed.