This ANU report proves the logging industry is worth 1/70th what the forests produce in water value. Professor David Lindenmayer said plainly “This is really dumb economics…” Logging in the central highlands generated a tiny $29 per hectare of additional net economic activity in 2013-14. That compares to a $2,023 per hectare contribution to the …
Victoria’s Central Highlands’ forests would potentially generate more income for the state if they were permanently preserved to store carbon rather than logged, according to a major study. A detailed analysis using a United Nations’ system of environmental and economic accounting concludes the net economic contribution from forestry in the area is relatively minor compared to the contribution to the state’s water supply, tourism …
Environmental organisation, Friends of the Earth has raised concerns regarding the logging and sale of plantation land in the Fernbank region. The bluegum plantations were established between 2005 and 2009 by Macquarie Bank in conjunction with Midway Plantations. The plantations were planted largely to meet the demands of a new Bleached Pulp Facility at Maryvale. …
UPDATED: VicForests claim spin doesn’t steal credit from GECO A community group of citizen scientists has become incensed following the release of a statement by VicForests that appears to claim their work for its own. A Gippsland-based group of citizen scientists claim VicForests has attempted to take credit for its work in protecting the habitats …
The old nursery rhyme may have questioned where the pussy cat had been, but a new research program reveals that just like the moggy that went to London, Australian domestic cats love to roam. Using global positioning system (GPS) devices, the program used at Lithgow, in central-west New South Wales, tracked the daily movements of …
Victorian conservationists who’ve saved a colony of threatened Greater Gliders from loggers say the latest victory is further evidence the Federal Government should tear up the Regional Forestry Agreements, which exempt native forest logging from national environmental law. A group led by the Goongerah Environment Centre discovered the Gliders in April, on a night-time survey of …
On Wednesday this week, the National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) launched a new report entitled Regional Forest Agreements in NSW. Have they achieved their aims? In short, the answer is no, far from it, writes Dr Ois√≠n Sweeney. REGIONAL FOREST Agreements (RFAs) are deals between the Commonwealth and State governments that allow for logging in public native forests. There …
In East Gippsland our freshwater ecosystems are threatened by clearfelling in most catchments, by industrial and agricultural pollution and excess nutrients, fire fighting chemicals broadcast over large areas, all of which end up in the Lakes system that is also threatened by deepening of the entrance at Lakes Entrance. This is changing a brackish-freshwater system …
A new study into the movement and behaviour of feral cats could have implications for the way bushfires are managed across the country. There is an “unholy alliance” between feral cats and wildfire, according to Australian Wildlife Conservancy chief executive Atticus Fleming. The large research project, undertaken by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, involved radio tracking …
Brush-tailed bettong, three-toed snake-tooth skink, swift parrot and types of orchid and albatross listed Nearly 50 new species of flora and fauna have been added without fanfare to the federal government’s list of threatened species, including nine that are critically endangered. Among the species to be added reported that 11 greater gliders were found in …
