Conservation groups representing 400,000 Australians have rejected the Government’s draft national forest policy and called for plantation harvesting.
They have sent a detailed submission to the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, saying that logging of native forests is unnecessary, uneconomic and not as productive as plantation timber.
The submission says the present policy has cost $4.5 billion in public debt. Australia could be self-sufficient in paper fibre by 1995 using plantation pulpwood, residues from plantation sawmills and increased recycling. Softwood from plantation aged 25-40 years could replace the vast majority of uses met from native forests.
Logging of native forests affected water supply and increased soil erosion, salinity, flooding and drought.
The submission cited Victorian research which showed that native forests were logged at a loss whereas plantation softwood forests ran at a healthy profit. This was because plantations produced more usable wood per hectare and was therefore more economic to extract.
“”Woodchipping should be abandoned as an unsustainable use of native forests,” it said.
The national draft policy failed to deal with biodiversity.
“”The people of Australia want all their native forests protected, and they want wood and paper products as well,” the submission said. “”The Draft National Forest Policy defeats both these goals.”
The government should instead develop as wood-production strategy based on existing and additional plantations on already-cleared land. The program could encompass the One Billion Trees program. It would also provide job growth, meet Australia’s timber needs and protect Australia’s unique native forest heritage.
The submission was signed by conservation groups from throughout Australia with membership numbers attached.