As American foresters ramp up logging to meet the growing demand for wood pellets by power plants on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, a new European wood energy proposal would allow the power plants to continue claiming their operations are green for at least 13 more years, despite releasing more heat-trapping pollution than …
After EEG launched a 10 month Supreme Court battle, the government’s logging agency VicForests, has agreed to await further surveys and put in place protections for wildlife and plants before logging. The court orders made on 23rd December 2016 detail VicForests obligations regarding the high value forests. It’s great that VicForests has finally agreed to …
The magnificent old growth forests of East Gippsland are a national treasure. Yet state-endorsed logging continues in this region, undermining the rich tapestry of plants and animals that support human health. In August of this year, citizen scientists documented the presence of a large population of protected Greater Gliders in these forests, including inside an …
This week a coalition of 25 environment groups is urging Premier Daniel Andrews to abandon his plans to extend the legal exemption given to the native forest logging industry in East Gippsland. The East Gippsland Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) is a 20-year arrangement between state and federal governments that gives special immunity to the logging …
Since the late 1990s the logging industry in Victoria has been exempt from adhering to federal environment laws that protect our nationally threatened wildlife. Only native forest logging gets this special exemption known as a ‘regional forest agreement’ (RFA) In February 2017 the East Gippsland RFA will expire. It should not be extended. Goongerah Environment …
The international police organization Interpol released a report today that highlights the scale of corruption in the global forestry sector as well as the importance of coordinating law enforcement efforts across national boundaries in order to protect forests. According to the report, the cost of corruption in the global forestry sector is some $29 billion …
All gardeners know that turning and aerating a compost pile decomposes it far more quickly. The resulting rich humus is a soil conditioner, encourages good fungi and invertebrates, holds water and provides nutrients to the garden. This is a simple example of how our forests function when the many players are healthy and in balance.The …
VOTERS in three inner-Melbourne electorates overwhelmingly want the Victorian Government to stop logging native forest in favour of the proposed 355,000-hectare Great Forest National Park. Polling conducted by Lonergan Research for the Greens shows that 96 per cent of voters in Richmond, Brunswick and Northcote believe the State Government has an obligation to protect Victoria’s …
Victoria has taken the dubious title of being the largest logger of Australian native forest by volume, accounting for around a third of all native forest logged in the country over the past year. The state government agency VicForests logged more than 1.3 million cubic metres of wood from Victoria’s native forests, almost 100,000 cubic …
Europe’s bioenergy plants are burning trees felled from protected conservation areas rather than using forest waste, new report shows Protected forests are being indiscriminately felled across Europe to meet the EU’s renewable energy targets, according to an investigation by the conservation group Birdlife. Up to 65% of Europe’s renewable output currently comes from bioenergy, involving …
