Forests have come out well in this Energy Future scheme (called the Carbon Tax) thanks to the public and a deal done by the Greens to exclude burning forests for power to be termed ‘renewable energy’. Several of these plans for forest furnaces now won’t be able to claim Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). This will …
As part of the new Clean Energy Future Package, the Government has announced that it will provide funding of $946 million over the first six years for landholders to undertake projects that establish, restore, protect or manage biodiverse carbon stores. The Fund will support restoration and management of biodiverse carbon stores including:• reforestation and revegetation …
Below is summary of an address given by Clive Hamilton in March 2011 in Melbourne. It gives a very astute overview of what we really need to do to bring about change.After almost 30 years of working at the forest campaign, and still seeing our remnants of magnificent old growth forest turned into a brew …
THE Ombudsman has been asked to investigate VicForests for allowing thousands of tonnes of wood salvaged from the Black Saturday bushfires to be exported to China in breach of a government contract. The Wilderness Society has lodged a complaint with Ombudsman George Brouwer after VicForests confirmed a private company, Pinex Logging, had breached a contract …
TWS Vic and MyEnvironment Inc. have played private eye for the last 12 weeks to study a supply chain of logs that have been leaving our fire ravaged forest and ending up in Footscray. The forest were once home to the endangered faunal emblem of Vic – the Leadbeaters Possum. The supply chain is a …
THE financial woes of the state government’s commercial forestry arm VicForests have deepened, with it forced to go back to Treasury for a bigger loan. VicForests’ line of credit with Treasury has doubled in three years, from $12.5 million in 2009 to $25 million this year, as the company struggles with cash-flow problems. The deepening …
The report to Treasury on the performance of VicForests was revealed in late February via an FOI by the Age newspaper. >Read it here. . It details much of their mismanagement and appalling behaviour. They have illegally logged forests, not adhered to their charter, not regenerated thousands of hectares of logged forest, lost millions of …
Bob Humphreys, a saw miller from Cann River and President the of the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, says “I’ve seen the writing on the wall myself for quite a long time. As far as I’m concerned the industry is as good as dead in the water.” http://www.abc.net.au/rural/vic/content/2010/11/s3066516.htm
With the late 2010 state election out of the way, VicForests released its 2010 Sustainability report, a classic piece of Spin from the last days of the Brumby era. This year VicForests appears to be more concerned with hosing down community concerns over salvage logging and biodiversity protection than providing any information about its performance …
It looks like the Coalition is well and truly home and hosed, as they say. They’ll have a majority in both houses of parliament. Their forest policy includes commitments to ”review harvesting rotations for faster growing native species such as mountain ash” which can be read as converting native forests into even more intensively managed …
