18 December 2009
Media Release
Victorian Timber Industry Strategy undermines
Copenhagen deal
The Wilderness Society today slammed the Brumby government’s Timber Industry Strategy as return to
the past, setting the state back decades in terms of innovation, jobs, inaction on climate change and
wasting the state’s huge plantation resource.
The Wilderness Society’s Victorian Forest Campaigner Luke Chamberlain said, “The strategy highlights
the Victorian government’s failure to grasp an opportunity to create jobs in the plantation sector and
secure protection for our water catchments and the most carbon dense native forests on the planet.”
The state government plans to log and burn Victoria’s carbon rich forests comes at a time when 51
countries and leading voices on climate change including Sir Nicholas Stern and Prince Charles have
called for the world’s forests to be protected as part of the Copenhagen agreement.
“At a time when the world’s leaders are trying to nut out a deal on climate change in
Copenhagen,
including protecting the world’s forests, the Victorian government is returning us to the 1950s by
committing our carbon dense native forests to the woodchip pile.”
“The protection of the world’s native forests from logging immediately leads to deep cuts in greenhouse
gas emissions, and this strategy does exactly the opposite – it commits to the destruction of our forests
for the next 40 years.”
“Whilst Victorians face ongoing water shortages
the strategy locks in logging of Melbourne’s water
catchments for decades. Not only does this plan lock in the destruction of Victoria’s carbon dense
forests, it will continue to carve holes in our previous water catchments.”
The Timber Industry Strategy should include:
1.
The protection of old growth forests as carbon stocks and prohibition of burning native forests
for power to consolidate Premier Brumby’s climate change action plan;
2.
Protection of water catchments to guarantee Victoria’s water security;
3.
Transition of native forest woodchipping into Victoria’s massive plantation resource and help the
private sector invest in innovation and green jobs in the emerging wood based panels industry,
which are the growth industries into Asian markets;
4.
Securing wood supply for sawmills from plantation wood
including investing in new mill
technologies and support for hardwood plantations for sawn timber
“We call on the Brumby government to show decisive leadership by going further with this Timber
Industry Strategy.
It must reset the trajectory of Victoria’s old and wasteful logging industry, and
replace it with plan to build a vibrant, innovative and sustainable wood products industry which creates
green jobs, reduces climate change and protects water catchment areas.”
Contact:
Luke Chamberlain 0424 098 729
NEWS 
