Western Australia’s Forest Products Commission should lose its “green tick” accreditation because its activities are not sustainable, environmentalists say. The commission will undergo its annual scheduled audit next week and environmentalists are hoping this will result in it losing the certification, which shows its products come from sustainable operations. The audit is being conducted by …
SHOOTERS will be choppered into the Snowy River National Park, in East Gippsland, to destroy feral cattle. Parks Victoria district manager Will McCutcheon said 10 cattle remained in the park. “Parks Victoria had recent success with helicopters used to locate the cattle and drop skilled shooters into remote, rugged sites, where access has been an …
The next 12 to 18 months promise to be very busy for myself and my colleagues at EJA, with a significant number of reviews now underway. These reviews are the result of hard work over many years by us and other environment groups concerned about the outdated and inadequate legal framework for protecting and restoring …
Drax power station in Yorkshire uses wood pellets to create electricity The move from coal was considered to be environmentally friendly But far from cutting emissions, change is actually increasing them In turn, it is adding millions of pounds to Britain’s electricity bills It is touted as the flagship of Britain’s energy future: the world’s …
On Wednesday, shadow Environment Minister Mark Butler moved an amendment to the RET legislation on behalf of the Labor opposition, that would disqualify native forest biomass as an eligible fuel source for renewable energy credits in the legislation itself. The fate of the amendment will be decided on the cross bench in the Senate on …
Written by Matt Williams, Climate Change Policy Officer at the RSPB. Across the world, countries are increasingly turning to biomass to meet a need for low carbon energy sources. Biomass is already the largest source of renewable energy in the EU, and this dependency is predicted to persist in coming decades. However, the European Union has …
Last week, the Gippsland environment group Goongerah Environment Centre (GEC) was shortlisted for the prestigious United Nations World Environment Day Awards in the Habitat Restoration and Biodiversity category. The announcement came as the Victorian government was threatening to prosecute GEC volunteers for exposing an illegal rainforest logging operation. Members of the East Gippsland group entered …
Leaked business and corporate plans from Victoria’s state-owned forestry business, VicForests, reveal multi-million dollar taxpayer losses and logging operations in parts of the state that ‘are not commercial’. This is especially the case in East Gippsland, where weak demand for poor quality logs has made operations unprofitable over ‘many years’. The leaked ‘commercial in confidence’ …
Logging in East Gippsland is not commercially viable and cutting down native forests across the region is racking up losses of up to $5.5 million a year, internal government documents reveal. A leaked briefing by Victoria’s Department of Treasury and Finance to the former Napthine government says East Gippsland logging is being cross-subsidised by profitable harvesting in the state’s Central Highlands. The Highlands logging has come …
The revised Renewable Energy Target (RET) currently before Parliament would provide a market for otherwise unsaleable timber, according to a document from Victoria’s state-owned forestry business, VicForests, obtained by the ABC. Environment Minister Greg Hunt introduced the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill yesterday. The legislation locks in the bipartisan deal for a new, lower, 2020 …
