Protecting forests, protecting wildlife, protecting climate

Protecting forests, protecting wildlife, protecting climate

BY JANET RICE
Senator For Victoria

 

The time for native forest logging is over.

We know that, the Australian public knows that, environmentalists and scientists know it, and our wildlife definitely knows it too.

It was forty years ago this month that I started my first job, working for the Conservation Council of Victoria, now Environment Victoria. A key part of my job was campaigning to protect our forests from logging. I ended up working as a forest campaigner for most of the following decade, including some fabulous years with the East Gippsland Coalition when we succeeded in getting large swathes of the magnificent forests of the Errinundra Plateau protected as National Park.

And it was being sold out by Labor on forests that motivated me to be one of the founders of the Greens in Victoria 31 years ago.

 

Young Janet Rice, Forest Campaigner

 

In my decade in the Senate, as the Greens spokesperson for forests, it's been a privilege to continue campaigning for an end to native forest logging  as the Greens forests spokesperson, despite it being incredibly frustrating that we are still having to fight to protect our forests!

Our native forests are unique and beautiful; they are home to some of our most iconic wildlife, are unceded Country for traditional owners with precious totems and songlines woven through them, and store enormous amounts of carbon. Despite that, Labor and Liberal governments have permitted and overseen decades of native forest logging that destroys our environment and releases over 11 million tonnes of carbon each year. 

This year we had a massive win with the Victorian government announcing that native forest logging was going to end in Victoria at the end of the year. There are however some distressing carve outs - that logging isn't going to end in western Victoria, including in the Wombat state forest.

Janet Rice

 

I visited the Wombat earlier this year as part of a protest and citizen science action about the Victorian government's new anti protest laws. These laws mean that people visiting a forest designated for logging - including doing surveys for endangered plants and animals- could be subject to a fine of $21,000 or two years in jail! Sadly with logging still scheduled to continue in the Wombat this attack on people’s rights will be ongoing.

Of course it's not just Victoria where forests are being destroyed. I’ve recently raised in the parliament the tragic death of an endangered greater glider after logging in the Tallaganda State Forest in NSW, and that the Tasmanian government unbelievably is still logging the homes of critically endangered Swift Parrots. This is despite the fact that only 750 or so Swifties remain in existence - less than half the number of the global poster child for endangered species, Giant Pandas. I feel a special connection with Swift Parrots - I have a giant poster of one in my office, looking down at my staff and me, reminding us of their tenuous hold on life.

The Commonwealth is just as responsible for this destruction as the States. The Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) which permit logging are Commonwealth - State agreements and include a massive carve out from our national environment laws.

I’ve just reintroduced a bill to end native forest logging and scrap the RFAs. Labor and Liberals joined together to defeat an earlier version of this bill just a few months ago, but we will persist! If there is one thing us forest campaigners are good at, it's being tenacious.

I’ve also just launched our new Protecting Native Forests, Protecting the Climate plan. 

This plan is an integrated approach for immediate action on the climate and extinction crises. Our plan would:

  • End native forest logging across the country - in Tasmania and NSW, as well as Victoria and Western Australia 
  • Fund ecological restoration and a just transition for workers and communities with $500 million a year for states which end or have ended native forest logging
  • Create new, sustainable green jobs in areas where native forest logging is ending
  • Ensure the carbon value of ending logging helps the climate rather than being traded away to benefit coal, oil and gas corporations

Not only must we end logging and protect our forests, but we have to make sure that ending logging benefits the climate. Our plan would ensure that the increased carbon, which will be stored and soaked up by our forests when logging ends, is not traded away as carbon offsets, sold to unleash more coal and gas.

It is estimated that ending native forest logging in Tasmania and NSW would mean the soaking up and storage of over 8 million extra tonnes of carbon dioxide every year - that’s the same as the carbon pollution from around half a million homes.

How will we finally win the campaign to protect all of our forests? I’ve been asking myself that for a long time! I know a critical part of the equation is to have people in our parliaments who really care rather than people and parties beholden to big corporates. I reckon getting more Greens elected and having balance of power in the House as well as the Senate is the lynchpin - so see you on the election campaign trail!