Leatherwood honey: please Mr Lennon, please

Bob Davey SaveYourLeatherwoodHoney, Press Release

The Premier in correspondance to the Association dated the 12th September 2006, in which he advised he had referred an earlier submission from the beekeepers to Forestry Tasmania, asked to be advised if he could be of any further assistance.

That invitation has been accepted and the Southern Branch of the Tasmanian Beekeepers Association have put a submission to him, that he and his Government use their power/influence to have Forestry Tasmania cease all harvesting of forest coupes containing rich leatherwood stands, broker/support an amendment to the Forest Practices Code which would see the inclusion of a transparent, practical and enforceable leatherwood retention protocol in the Code.
And work to having a more practical sawlog target for Forestry Tasmania set, so as to enable it to genuinely manage State Forest for all users and not just the Timber Industry.

Forestry Tasmania have on several occasions made the point (off the record ), that their overriding duty is to deliver the sawlog quota set under the RFA, and that this makes it difficult if not impossible to allow for the needs of other forest resource users.

A detailed submission has been recently been put to the Forest Practices Authority by the Tasmanian Beekeepers Association, setting out the text of what the beekeepers say should be in the forest Practices Code. The Code is due for review in 2007.

This submission includes provisions which not only would involve the beekeepers at the early planning stage of a harvesting plan, to help identify and retain leatherwood resource, but creates a dispute resolution procedure which involves mediation, whilst retaining the appeal provisions of the Forest Practices Act, that is, an appeal to the Forest Practices Tribunal.

Both the Authority and Forestry Tasmania have to be persuaded that the enforceable nature of the provisions are necessary or workable or both. We believe they would prefer to leave in place the present “ compliance if possible” regime. This has never been effective in the past and the beekeepers have no confidence that this will change.

This parallels a submission to Forestry Tasmania setting out details of two further coupes which are scheduled for timber harvesting and listing a number coupes which are in the current 3 year harvesting plan.

We are waiting a response from both the Premier and Forestry Tasmania on all these issues.

The Tasmanian Beekeepers Association and the SaveYourLeatherwoodHoney Association (both presented) papers at the Water, Food& Forests conference this weekend convened by Futures Tasmania.

Our papers can be viewed on the conference website, www.futuretasmania.com.

This is watershed time for the beekeepers and their resource. It will shortly become so for the vegetable, fruit and seed growers who rely on the beekeepers for their pollination. If the opportunity is not grasped now then another year of resource loss will occur, leading not only to more dispute over the harvesting of forest coupes, but more importantly, further reduction in the hives available for pollination.

The beekeeping industry is in decline.

Until the changes are made we will continue to monitor all leatherwood rich coupes, which are due to be harvested in the near future. The two coupes mentioned above are two such coupes, and being, PC039F and FO044A. The loss of leatherwood in these coupes alone will reduce the hive carrying capacity in those areas by at least 90 hives. We look forward to an announcement that the harvesting of these coupes will avoid the leatherwood content.

It is in the hands of the responsible Minister, Paul Lennon, and his Government.

The beekeepers expect leadership on this forest issue, which will deliver a fair result for all Tasmanians who rely on the forest resource for their livelihood.

Bob Davey ( President -SaveYourLeatherwoodHoney Association ). 25Oct