The Beagle Editor,
I note that you considered the recent Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) media release regarding the use of plantation timbers of the Royal Easter Show wood chop was good news and shouldn't be used as an opportunity to discuss forestry issues.
Despite the fact that we all need more good news please allow me in the public interest to point out a couple of relevant facts.
Firstly, the forest from which the timber destined for the Royal Easter Show 2018 is coming hit the news in 2011 for very different reasons.
In that year Bago State Forest was home to a population of endangered Yellow-bellied Gliders which was very inconveniently holding up the logging.
Fortunately the then Minister for Environment authorised the de-listing of the Gliders to permit logging to proceed. Upon completion of the “harvest” the Gliders were re-listed.
Secondly, the body certifying Bago State Forest timber as “sustainable” is called Responsible Wood. It is made up of 15 industry groups incl. VicForests and FCNSW plus other interested parties. In fact it claims that more than 98% of timber coming from NSW State Forests is “sustainably harvested.” http://www.forestrycorporation.com.au/our-forests/certification To put it politely, this obviously a hotly contested claim especially at this time when State and Federal Governments are wanting to quietly roll over the Regional Forest Agreements for another 20 years without considering changes in our awareness of the lack of science now underpinning native forest logging. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/22/nsw-labor-refuses-to-approve-forestry-agreements-based-on-out-of-date-science.
Good news we all need but greenwash needs to be called out for what it is – a cynical public relations exercise designed to promote a false warm glow around an increasingly unsustainable industry.
Regards Name and address supplied
