By Jim Green
SYDNEY — The state Labor government released its proposals for the southern NSW regional forest agreement on January 28. The agreement will allow large-scale logging to continue in NSW's forests.
The agreement is to be finalised by the NSW and federal governments before the end of March. Five of the options canvassed in the NSW government report, covering the coastal strip from Nowra to Narooma, would allow the logging of between 32,000 and 65,000 cubic metres of sawlogs each year. The sixth proposal concerns forests around Tumut.
Of the options outlined in the report, one allowing for 32,000 cubic metres of logging attracted media attention because of dubious claims that it is supported by environment groups. The January 27 Sydney Morning Herald reported that Noel Plumb, described as a "negotiator for the environment groups", supported a modified version of the 32,000-cubic-metre proposal. Plumb said this proposal would cost no more than 30 forest and trucking jobs, serve all existing contracts and create 16 national parks.
However, Friends of the Earth forest campaigner Tom McLoughlin has repudiated claims that the environment movement supports the proposal. McLoughlin said in a media release, "The Herald article refers to the government-endorsed and funded negotiators for the greens — and industry — who accept the government's dishonest 'agreement' process.
"However the process has been broadly condemned by democratic green summits as 'fraudulent' and would result in one million hectares of forest clearfelling in NSW. The independent, unfunded, forest protection movement is totally against logging of sensitive forested catchments in the southern region."
Kathy Ridge, executive officer of the NSW Nature Conservation Council said, "None of the proposed options meet the agreed conservation criteria. All these options will deliver NSW is extinct species, not conservation outcomes."
Originally, said Ridge, the regional forest agreements were expected to apply conservation criteria which, if applied to southern NSW forests, would result in just 51 hectares being available for logging, the rest being reserved to maintain biodiversity.