An unpublished letter

Richard Davis

They use a utilitarian language to justify the ruthless logic of their pernicious assault on our biological capital, it reflects a culture ruled by economics and the market, a culture which substitutes the relative stability and complexity of the natural world for the instability of an ordered landscape of plantations and artificially seeded mono-cultures and re-growth woodlots.

The Editor
Tas Country
Dear Sir,

Robert Onfray’s statements and assertions, Tas Country 7-07-06 reflect the fundamentalist dogma of professionally trained foresters who use “proven” science to try and justify their actions.

The science of World’s Best Practice is a science of convenience, a science which has been influenced by a prescribed outcome i.e. business as usual.

Foresters and Silviculturists use science as a justification for the conquest of the natural world.

They do not understand what they are doing because they have no conception of what they are undoing.

They use a utilitarian language to justify the ruthless logic of their pernicious assault on our biological capital, it reflects a culture ruled by economics and the market, a culture which substitutes the relative stability and complexity of the natural world for the instability of an ordered landscape of plantations and artificially seeded mono-cultures and re-growth woodlots.

Forest management wants to defy nature, their actions are underwritten by subterfuge where the lie has become the truth, where the jargon of sustainability is used to describe the destruction of the diversity of flora and fauna which exists both competitively and co-operatively in unexploited or modified natural forests.

Foresters use the ploy of reduction management, where the definition of forest types (i.e. old growth, re-growth and native forest) together with the age classification of those forests, change constantly so they can justify the continuing exploitation of what is a disappearing resource being put under ever increasing pressure. They categorise the complexity of forest types and systems so as to simplify their reconstruction, a reconstruction which only suits a particular economic agenda and ignores all the vital services and values natural landscapes provide.

When we are constantly told our forests are being managed sustainably and in a way which emulates nature, we are being lied to. It simply is not possible to grow balanced eco-systems back in five minutes while the fundamental rules of nature are being changed forever.

Living off the interest without trashing the capital, respect for the resource and associated systems, care and a regard for quality are ideals modern foresters and the logging industry don’t even begin to understand. The illusion of economic progress, growth, the market and ever increasing urbanisation masks the footprint of massive ecological destruction and deficit of biological capital.

We are increasingly confronted with the dull monotony and uniformity of an ordered landscape where a rapacious market driven culture prevails and where non-economic and non-utilitarian principles lack legitimacy.

Notwithstanding all the science, technical ingenuity and expert opinion, it is our children and grandchildren who are being bequeathed the consequences of misappropriated, plundered, denuded and impoverished landscapes, landscapes which have been profoundly altered forever as our generation treats this planet as though we are the last generation to inhabit it.

Natural Capital is not Income

So few have pauperised so much for so little in such a transitory period of time.

Richard Davis
Timber Workers for Forests
Arcadia