5% burn targets questioned by govt monitor AGAIN!
The 5% burn target has again been questioned by Neil Comrie himself “the 390,000 ha target may not be achievable, affordable or sustainable.” (from the latest BRCIM’s 2014 annual report).
The Bushfire Royal Commission’s Implementation Monitor’s 2012 Final Report advocated that the State reconsider the planned burning rolling target of five per cent and replace it with a risk based approach focused on the protection of life and property. In 2013, the BRCIM went further stating concerns that the 390,000 ha target may not be achievable, affordable or sustainable. The BRCIM’s view in relation to this target is unchanged. Area based hectare targets alone will not necessarily reduce the bushfire risk to life and property in Victoria and may have adverse environmental outcomes…
‘With the benefit of five years dedicated work in this area, the BRCIM considers it may be timely for the State to reconsider [Royal Commission] Recommendation 56, having regard to the positive shift in focus from a numeric area based target to a risk based approach in order to deliver an effective long term program of planned burning.’
Check pages 47-48. The report is here.
How long will Premier Napthine favour fooling the public with an expensive, ineffective and (long term) environmentally destructive ‘pyro-placation’? These millions would be better spent on more targeted and effective protection measures.
The government has every reason now to review its current land and fire management. Significantly, the new research which shows that logging regrowth (a large % of public forested land) creates a more intense and deadly bushfire must be considered.