Glen Britton at the release of the Interim Agreement on Tasmanian Forest Wood Supply and Conservation 15 august 20012
On Friday 31 August the Chairman of FIAT, Mr Glenn Britton told media that his Association would now boycott the peace talks process until he and Terry Edwards had met with Minister for Forests, Bryan Green. He told media FIAT needed to receive clarity on the management of wood supply from State forests.
Mr Britton told Tasmanian media: “FIAT’s position is we will be postponing further participation in the so-called peace talks until such time it has been unequivocally resolved that land won’t be transferred to a Government Department.”
Mr Britton believed if that were to occur it would threaten the ‘durability’ of wood supply for the industry.
The sticking point for FIAT and the Australian Forest Products Association relates to the decision to split Forestry Tasmania into two parts as recommended in Option 2 of the URS Report released in Parliament on Wednesday. The commercial forestry would remain with the GBE, however, the ‘non-commercial’ part of their responsibility, namely current forest reserves but more importantly the large areas of high conservation value State forest being negotiated for under the forest talks with the ENGOs.
On Wednesday 29 August Minister Green discussed this issue on ABC radio:
Louise Saunders: Do you agree that sorting out the management of land is probably one of the most crucial issues given that there is a risk of FIAT again walking away from the IGA process?
Bryan Green: Yeah, it is. And ahhm… look… I said in the Parliament and ahhm… I absolutely respect Glen Britton [chairman of FIAT and Managing Director of Britton Timbers] and FIAT and ahhm… I, I asked them to consider what I said with respect to how we need to get a commercial enterprise running and, and… we are open to ahhm… working through those processes with the industry… and of course ahh… ahhh… Forestry Tasmania. And we will provide the necessary resources for that consultation and discussion to take place. And I think Parliament has taken a big step….
Agreement on the boundaries of production forest areas has yet to be determined based on the wood supply for saw log, peeler logs and special timbers to be harvested from native forests annually.
Agreeing on what will be retained by Forestry Tasmania as ‘commercial’ versus what is reserved as ‘non-commercial’ State forest is the never-ending, ‘last hurrah’ battle ground.
That decision can only be made when both sides agree on how the existing wood supply contracts are to be provided from native forests and/or FT-managed plantations or through wood supply from alternative arrangements like privately-owned forests.
Industry is [i]fearful[/i] that once they agree to give over HCV State forests to [b]conservation forests[/b] and are then legislatively protected. These forests will be ‘locked up’ for ever. Clearly the Industry want to part with the least amount to clinch a deal.
ENGOs is [i]fearful[/i] that once they agree to give over HCV State forests to [b]production forestry[/b] and are then legislatively protected. These forests will be ‘locked up’ for ever. Clearly the ENGOs want to part with the least amount to clinch a deal.
Both want a win-win deal but they are playing this game as of it is a win-lose game.
Both sides maintain: there is no Plan ‘B’.
Still room for more stalemates, stalling and boycotting before these contested issues are resolved and for this war, not to be [i]won[/i] … simply over.
[b]The Second Coming[/b] was written by William Butler Yeats in 1919 in the aftermath of the First World Warand the [i]Armistice[/i] was signed.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of [i]Spiritus Mundi[/i]
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
• Media Release 2 September 2012
Tasmanian Forest Protection Needed Despite Industry walk out
The Tasmanian Government must take decisive action and provide secure protection for Tasmania’s forests, rather than pander to the logging industry bullies who are stalling forest protection and denying the inevitable restructure of Forestry Tasmania. Any curbing of Forestry Tasmania’s avarice is welcomed.
Forest Industries Association of Tasmania’s (FIAT) disingenuous approach to the negotiations can no longer be tolerated.
“FIAT are the main beneficiaries of taxpayer funds to the value of over half a million dollars a week being wasted by Forestry Tasmania. FIAT appear to be in the talks to deliver only for the industry, they have to have their own way without making any compromise and without agreeing to forest protection,” Huon Valley Environment Centre’s Jenny Weber said.
“While the forest agreement talks started with potential, they have failed to provide secure forest protection two years later, and some members of the forestry industry are using the talks as a vehicle to entrench unsustainable logging of native forests. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars has flowed to the ailing industry, while the destruction of wild forests has continued in proposed reserves,” Jenny Weber said.
“Independent experts have stated that 563 000 hectares of forests have high conservation values, and that Forestry Tasmania is losing up to $35 million per year.” Jenny Weber said.
“Our preferred option is that Forestry Tasmania should be abolished and all its operations be returned to the Government. Tasmania does not have economic or environmental sustainability when $35 million a year for the next five years is funnelled in to forest destruction.” Jenny Weber said.
“It would not be acceptable for the Government to weaken its position to restructure Forestry Tasmania under the duress of FIAT holding the talks to ransom,” Jenny Weber said.
Jenny Weber
Huon Valley Environment Centre
www.huon.org
www.nativeforest.net
• Hakan Ekstrom, Wood Resource Quarterly:
Lumber markets in the US improving with higher demand and increasing prices in the 2Q/12; sawlog price trends mixed, reports to the Wood Resource Quarterly
Increased demand for lumber in the US and higher exports from Canada to China have resulted in lumber prices being about 35% higher in August of 2012 as compared to August of 2011. Sawlog prices have moved up in Interior BC 2Q/12 y-o-y, while falling in Western US and remaining unchanged in Eastern Canada and the US South, according to WRQ.
The full article can be downloaded here:
GTWMU_North_America_lumber_log_market_2Q_2012.pdf
• Phill Pullinger, Vica Bayley: Machinery vandalism condemned
Environment groups today condemned the reported vandalism of logging equipment.
In response to today’s reports of vandalism of logging machinery, the groups condemned all
violence towards person or property as totally unacceptable, and welcomed the police
investigation into the incident.
Given the history of hoaxes and false allegations of vandalism levelled at conservationists in
the past, the groups also stated that it is in no circumstances acceptable for commentators
to seek to pre-empt the police investigations and politicise the incident, insisting instead that
police should be allowed to properly conduct their investigation.
Vica Bayley, The Wilderness Society, Dr Phill Pullinger, Environment Tasmania
