Economy
Forestry: Time to wean the screaming infant
Our state government is about to hand a bunch of our money to forest industry contractors because the woodchip industry has a product no-one wants to buy. Woodchips are selling, but not Tasmanian ones. Before we hand over the cash (yet again) we should ask some hard questions of the industry.
Over the years this industry has been receipient of vast sums of public funds. It is glued to the public tit in a way no other industry in this state has been able to emulate. Like any other child the weaning process, left too long, will be an unseemly spectacle. It is, however, a spectacle we must have, as adolecent children on the breast, especially a public breast, are never a good look. The forestry industry could hardly be called an infant, now could it?
Why should forestry contractors get assistance that has not been available to agricultural contractors when various sectors of that industry go pear shaped? How is Brian Green’s McCains committee
helping those businesses? I don’t see them screaming for a go at the public tit.
Why should forestry contractors get bailed out, yet the tertiary firms supporting that industry get no assistance? (And some have debtors who owe large amounts for work on harvesting equipment). I have not heard any engineering shops wailing for a suckle.
Why should we bail these contractors out, when the industry has failed to recognise the obvious and institute the required steps to restructure to meet the changes that were predicted years ago? The refusal to eat solid food has been tolerated for far too long.
Did not this same industry use the oversupply of contractors to deliberately drive prices to unsustainably low levels to line its own pockets?
What is it about the forestry industry that makes them think they are entitled to our money because they cannot manage their own affairs?
Why is it our government has been unable to refuse the requests of this particular child, to the detriment of many, if not all its other responsibilities? This spoiled little shit is disrupting family life something shocking.
It is long past time this tit addicted child was dragged from the public breast and taught to get by on clear thinking, honest trade and treated as an idiot until its actions suggest otherwise. I expect our representatives to behave like responsible parents and recognise that while the tanty will be nasty, loud and unpleasant the alternative is an embarrassment to us all, and cannot possibly continue because it is fundamentally unhealthy. The tanty will end, and so too will the forestry controversy.
While we watch the fireworks, let’s remind ourselves how much of our money has been spent supporting this indolent child. Post in comments below your recollections of grants, gifts, rorts, and scams and let’s see if we can get to a total cost of supporting the unsupportable.
Meanwhile, in Canada …
Timber companies and environment groups have unveiled an agreement aimed at protecting two-thirds of Canada’s vast forests from unsustainable logging.
Over 72 million hectares are included in what will become the world’s largest commercial forest conservation deal.
Logging will be totally banned on some of the land, in the hope of sustaining endangered caribou populations.
Timber companies hope the deal will bring commercial gains, as timber buyers seek higher ethical standards.
The total protected area is about twice the size of Germany, and equals the area of forest lost globally between 1990 and 2005.
“The importance of this agreement cannot be overstated,” said Avrim Lazar, president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC).
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“Together we have identified a more intelligent, productive way to manage economic and environmental challenges in the Boreal [Forest] that will reassure global buyers of our products’ sustainability.”
The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) brings together FPAC’s 21 member companies and nine environment groups, many of which have fought a bitter battle against what they have sometimes criticised as rapacious logging.
As part of the agreement, those groups have agreed to suspend criticism of the industry and calls for boycotts.
Green excitement
The Pew Environment Group, which has worked for about a decade on trying to “green” Canada’s forestry, said it was “excited” by the agreement.
“We’re thrilled that this effort has led to the largest commercial forest conservation plan in history, which could not have happened without both sides looking beyond their differences,” said Steve Kallick, director of Pew’s International Boreal Conservation Campaign.
Pew notes that the total area covered by the deal is larger than in some agrrements currently feted as global leaders, such as the Brazilian Amazon Region Protected Areas project.
Throughout the protected lands – which run right across the country from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts – companies and environment groups are pledging to work together to implement “world-leading forest management and harvesting practices”.
The effects of forest protection on wildlife, particularly caribou, will be monitored; and timber will be certified as coming from sustainable sources.
Pew believes the agreement could be a template for future forest agreements in other parts of the world, as industry leaders respond to an increasingly environmentally-aware public.
“There is a recognition that this is how forestry will be done in the 21st Century, and there’s a great interest in getting ahead of the rest of the industry,” Mr Kallick told BBC News.
The agreement at present covers companies and environment groups; both parties are looking now for backing and re-inforcement from governments.
In the Canadian system tham means the national and provincial authorities, and “First Nation” governments of indigenous groups, some of which have already indicated their support.