By Dave Wright
DELORAINE, Tasmania — The first international temperate forest conference held on November 16-17 was attended by over 100 people from around Australia and overseas, including Chile, the United States and New Zealand.
Keynote speakers included world renowned botanist Professor David Bellamy, Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick from the University of Tasmania and Green parliamentarian Dr Bob Brown.
The conference, organised by the Native Forest Network, had the theme "Towards a global temperate forest action plan".
Tim Cadman, conference convenor, told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly: "It's about time that we in the industrialised nations in the northern and southern hemisphere recognised that out temperate forests are the subject of deforestation projects on a par with the tropical forests".
He went on to say that in the past 100 years we had lost one third of the world's temperate forests, and that the scale of clear cuts in some northern hemisphere countries made the Amazon look like "chicken feed". To gauge the scale of temperate forest destruction he said that 20% of the Brazilian forests had been logged compared with 95% of the United States primary old-growth forests.
The conference dealt with a wide range of questions affecting the temperate forests. These included biodiversity, economic impact of plantation logging, endangered flora and fauna, international and local reports, and the formation of a Native Forest Action Plan.
David Bellamy told the conference that there were three main types of temperate forest. Firstly, the warm temperate forest, mainly found in maritime regions on the east and west coast of continents, which could also be called temperate rain forests. Secondly, nemorla temperate forests, the classic broad leaf temperate forests of Europe, North America and China, typified by only short periods of frost. And thirdly, cold temperate forests, the great boreal forests of the northern hemisphere such as in Siberia which are subject to long cold winters.
He told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that "solutions must be found and I believe they can without further destruction of old growth temperate forest." He also believed that to do so it was important for the conservation movement to work alongside the timber industry, to become part of it.
An interesting aspect of the conference was the importance placed on it by APPM, which had several representatives, all of whom stayed and even contributed in the workshops and final session discussion.
One of the international groups represented at the conference was the US organisation called Earth First. It has recently come under fire from the mainstream press in Australia for conducting "environmental terrorism", because some of its members in the past have engaged in the practice of "monkey wrenching" and "tree spiking".
Jake Jagoff from Earth First said that it was unfortunate that the media had picked up and focused on this because the group had changed considerably over recent years. They were committed to non-violent direct action but they would neither condone nor condemn the actions of individual environmental activists.
Jagoff stressed that probably the most important aspect of the conference was the establishment of an international temperate forest network which was activist based and campaign oriented. It needed to reach our to not only conservation organisations but other progressive organisations and activists as well.
He told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly: "We need to network and reach out to groups outside the conservation movement and build coalitions as we have tried to do in the United States with people from diverse backgrounds, such as the women's movement, labour organisations and the peace movement".
The conference came at an important time for the environment movement in Tasmania as it gears up for another "long hot summer" of activity with campaigns in the North Western Tiers, the Tarkine and the southern forests.
Conference organisers expect an international newsletter and network of contacts to be concrete gains form the conference, with a number of working groups to be formed. Another conference is planned in two years' time, in either the United States or Chile. For information on the Native Forest Network, contact Tim Cadman on 003 622 713.