Economy
Gillard paves way to end Tasmania logging conflict
THE Gillard government has offered to finance a potential breakthrough between environmentalists and forestry companies to end the decades-long conflict over native forest logging in Tasmania.
In meetings in Tasmania last week, Forestry Minister Tony Burke is understood to have told negotiating parties some federal money is available for an agreement and he has asked for a deal to be presented to him by early next week.
Over recent months, representatives of the timber industry and the environmental movement have been negotiating an agreement that could end much of the native forest logging in the state.
While any deal could still fall through, the parties are now understood to be getting close. The environment movement – represented in the negotiations by the Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Tasmania – is understood to want an almost immediate halt to logging of high-conservation-value forests and a phased end, over a number of years, to almost all native logging throughout the state except in rare circumstances.
In return, the struggling Tasmanian timber industry – represented by Timber Communities Australia, the National Association of Forest Industries, and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union – wants a restructuring package to help industry move towards certified plantation timber.
The industry is also understood to be asking for financial help for new infrastructure and roads to ensure its long-term survival. It also wants support for Gunns’ stalled Bell Bay pulp mill.
Mr Burke is understood to have asked the parties to present a deal to the government by early next week and has told them that while there is not unlimited money to get an agreement, the government would step in if an appropriate agreement were presented.
While refusing to comment on any government offer, Mr Burke told The Age yesterday ”there are genuine efforts being made by people who have spent their lives arguing with each to see if they can reach a settlement”.
”We are not there yet, but it would be a massive change from the conflict that has plagued this issue for generations.”
National Association of Forest Industries chief executive Allan Hansard will meet his Tasmanian member companies today to discuss the agreement.
Green groups have also presented parts of the deal to many of the community-based environment bodies they are representing in the talks.
Australian: Tasmania logging deal close to final cut
A TAXPAYER-FUNDED deal to end the decades-old impasse over native forest logging could be concluded within the next week.
Negotiations between conservationists and the timber industry, first revealed by The Australian in May, have entered sensitive final stages.
The peak conservation, industry and trade union groups involved have entered into a pact not to discuss the historic talks publicly and were not willing to comment yesterday.
However, it is understood each has gone back to its constituency with proposals on the more difficult issues to see whether agreement is possible.
These issues are understood to include the speed and extent of a phase-out of logging of high conservation value forests and the Gunns pulp mill.
The Gillard government, which will need to bankroll the lion’s share of a state-federal industry restructuring and assistance package, is being kept informed of developments.
While the talks are understood to have gone well, negotiators for the groups, including The Wilderness Society and the National Forest Industries Association, need approval from their broader constituencies.
The mood appears cautious but upbeat, with a common belief that a lasting solution to the divisive debate is closer now than at any time in the past 30 years.
The industry, hard hit by the downturn and a decision by Japanese paper-makers to not accept woodchips without Forest Stewardship Council certification, is keen to find a solution.
Critically, key industry player Gunns wants a “social licence” under FSC certification to win back Japanese woodchip customers and secure a joint-venture partner for its stalled $2.5 billion Tamar Valley pulp mill. Even so, the industry is understood to have pushed hard for some native forest logging to continue for high-quality sawlogs, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in government assistance to compensate for lost resources and avoid job losses.
Earlier: Gillard poised for major forests statement, HERE
Meanwhile, elsewhere …
14 July 2010
Native Forest Land Sales
Gunns Limited advises that it has entered into contracts for the sale of approximately 28,000 hectares of native forest land in Tasmania at a value of $27.5m.
Please refer to link below for the full announcement:
HERE
Greg L’Estrange, Chief Executive Officer
And,
Greens’ positive forests policy remains unchanged
Nick McKim MP
Greens Leader
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
The Tasmanian Greens today reiterated that their positive Forests policy, the Forests Transition Strategy: More Jobs Less Logs, released during the state election campaign and which outlines a transition to a low volume high value industry, remains unchanged.
Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said that the strategy outlines an end to industrial scale logging of native forests, while providing for appropriate designated Specialty Timber Zones over which a Specialty Timber Commission would have oversight.
“Our forests policy provides a sensible and positive plan to protect our unique high conservation value forests, deliver a timber industry of which all Tasmanians can be proud, and which would ensure that appropriate specialty timber zones were created to provide for low volume high value added craft work,” Mr McKim said.
“The Strategy makes it clear that there is no place economically, socially or ecologically for the continued industrial-scale logging of our native forests, but there is scope for appropriately managed specialty timber zones and this position has not changed.
“Our forests also have a significant role to play in the climate change fight, which is detailed in our Transition strategy.”
“The Greens’ More Jobs Less Logs forests strategy delivers a sustainable future for our forests, Tasmania’s timber industry, and the workers and families that rely on it for support.”
And,
(Friends of the Tamar MR withdrawn)
And,
High Hopes for hemp
Spending day after day in fields of cannabis, one can come up with some pretty offbeat ideas—like making houses out of hemp.
But Dr Susanna Wilkerson has great visions for a plant often maligned for its association with drug use.
The founder of Australian company Pure Delight Hemp says the fibrous plant could replace trees as a source of the world’s paper. Its seeds are nothing short of a super food and it can decontaminate vast tracts of land, including nuclear wastelands.
And, yes, it can be used to create a building material, called “hempcrete”, which is six times more insulating than concrete for heat and sound. It is also lighter, non-toxic and fire resistant, she says.
In fact, the Canadian-born naturopath believes that hemp is the answer to a sustainable future. From her property in north Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands, she produces hemp to make cosmetics, food, fuel, paper, textiles and now buildings.
Hemp has more uses and is more sustainable than any single plant on the planet,” Dr Wilkerson told The Epoch Times. “It is the obvious solution for pretty much every ecological situation we’ve got. That includes global warming, soil degradation, deforestation and bad farming, including the problems associated with animal farming.”
Cannabis sativa is the longest and strongest known fibre in the plant world. Since the invention of paper about 2000 years ago, hemp has been used to make the finest and most enduring of papers. In 1611, the King James Bible was printed on hemp in Britain, as was America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Levi jeans were originally made from recycled hemp sail cloth. Before the US 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, 70 per cent of all rope, twine and cordage was made from hemp.
The Difference Between Hemp and Marijuana …