Rainforest case – logging ban extended to January
In December, VicForests sent logging contractors into a very controversial stand of forests – a National Rainforest Site of Significance. Our appeals to VicForest and DSE to pull logging machines out of course were ignored, and police arrested people protesting at the site.
The law states that areas designated as Sites of Significance for rainforests at a National level will be fully protected. The DSE and VicForests now claim the maps were wrong!
EEG decided this was another blatant case of breaking environmental laws to suit logging. We had no option but to apply for an injunction to the logging in the Supreme Court – AGAIN. Due to VicForests still refusing to pay our legal fees from the Brown Mountain court order in September 2010, we had to rely on the outrage-fuelled generosity of our many supporters. We managed to get the court papers lodged and heard in record time (thanks also to our super-human legal team).
The temporary halt to logging was successful while the injunction will be heard in late January (VicForests asked for an adjournment while it prepared its case).
This is a good outcome. Our lawyers have filed some very impressive court documents to show that the forests are within the boundaries of a National Rainforest Site of Significance.
From the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Action Statement for Rainforests
It is just incredible that in this day and age, that a small local environment group has to take on a government agency to prevent the illegal logging of a National Rainforest Site of Significance. Most of the developed world knows the value of forests and rainforest, but the Baillieu government doesn’t.