This article is a response from Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest (NFGF) to the article Glider crisis. ARR.News asked some questions to which NFGF have responded, below the article.
Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest (NFGF), 26 September 2022
Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest (NFGF) is a community group established in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs in 2017. Our members have come together to protect Victoria’s native forests: their stored carbon, the water they provide to Melbourne and the Goulburn food bowl; the home they provide to threatened and not-yet threatened species; their recreation and tourism potential; and their stunning beauty.
NFGF have followed with interest the developments in the native forest logging industry, in particular the decision by the Andrews government in 2019 to halt native forest logging in 2030.
Victoria is well placed to transition to a 100 % plantation industry as we already have considerable areas of plantation. Plantation wood currently makes up 86% of the volume and 84% of the value of the woodchip, paper, cardboard, solid and laminated wood industry.[i] Victoria is also a net exporter of plantation of pulpwood for paper production, with some 4.8 million tonnes of woodchips sent overseas each year.[ii]
Although native forest logged wood provides a much lower percentage of the feedstock, it is continued at a large financial and environmental loss to the Victorian taxpayer.[iii] Native forest logging is also very inefficient. Some 60 per cent of what is cut down remains on the forest floor as “waste” or “slash”[iv] and is later burnt. The smoke from these burns add further to emissions and pollution.
About 85 per cent of the wood transported out of native forest is used for low grade products, notably paper and transport pallets. The wood for paper is taken to the Maryvale paper mill in the Latrobe Valley owned by Nippon Paper. For pallets, it is taken either to Dandenong South or Swifts Creek, where Allied Natural Wood Enterprises (ANWE), related to the Pentarch Group, operates two mills. To meet its customer requirements of some 3200 pallets per day, it requires around 166,320 m3 of sawlogs per annum, of which VicForests provides about 145,000 tonnes.[v]
With the Victorian government indicating native forest logging will end in 2030, native forest logging contractors and mills which use native forest trees have expressed concern about the future of native forest logging. NFGF and other environmental groups are also concerned about an apparently chaotic transition to a plantation industry.
The industry could consider the state government’s role in this crisis.
The Victorian state government has been aware for many years of the growing issues surrounding native forest logging. This includes the forest dependent species becoming threatened with extinction as they lose their habitat; the increasing susceptibility of logged forest to severe bushfire; its impact on waterflows into reservoirs; and the plummeting social licence for native forest logging.
Moreover, VicForests – a government agency – itself has a poor track record in the way it logs the native forest areas allocated to it. An independent audit of VicForests’ operations is commissioned by the government every year, and the most recent one found that non-conformance incidents with the potential for environmental impact were recorded in 19 of the 30 audited coupes. There was an average of 1.3 incidents with potential environmental impact per coupe, with as many as five incidents recorded in one coupe.[vi]
The current Labor state government announced, even before the 2019 – 20 fires, that it would halt native logging in 2030, admitting that the industry was facing dwindling supply and is not sustainable.[vii] The recent Major Event Review of the 2019 – 2020 fires confirmed that ‘The frequent exposure to intense bushfires is presenting a major and increasing threat to the effective operation of Victoria’s RFAs, to the stability of the forests and the achievement of ecologically sustainable forest management. There is ongoing loss of old growth forests and ongoing decline of forest-dependent threatened species and communities.’[viii]
The transition to plantations was supposed to be assisted by $220 million of transition funding. Of this, $110 million was pledged in 2017 for new plantations, yet expressions of interest in these were only opened in 2020 and we are uncertain how many trees have been planted since then. The next round of funding was announced in 2021, a $100 million package for workers, communities and businesses to assist with the transition.[ix] It was to be released ‘early 2022’ for expressions of interest, but it has been withheld, with no explanation given.
The industry has every right to be upset with the government for withholding the funding for a fair and just transition. Instead of assisting community, workers and the small-to-medium sized mills to transition, the government continues to subsidise highly unionised larger mills. The state government paid $60 million in 2017 for 49% state government ownership in the Heyfield Mill[x] and since then has given $1.2 million to the Heyfield mill for a laminating facility.[xi] This mill previously received $1.6 million through the Victorian Timber Innovation Fund to install a new manufacturing line to produce engineered flooring.[xii] Earlier, in 2014, it was given $650,000 for a laminating facility expansion.[xiii] The paper mill in Maryvale (owned by a Japanese company) has benefitted from a government funded $3 Million upgrade for the rail line going into the mill.[xiv] It was also given state government funding for a feasibility study into an incinerator project[xv]
Environment groups want to save the remaining mature forest for the community; for tourism, carbon storage, water supply, habitat and to minimise the fire burden of logged forests on regional communities. We are calling on the state government to release the funds it promised to release in early 2022 for the transition to a plantation industry.
References
[i] Data tables Australian forest and wood product statistics datasets
[ii] ABARES 2022, Australian forest and wood products statistics, September and December quarters 2021, ABARES series report, Canberra, June, DOI: https://doi.org/10.25814/esgd-1237. CC BY 4.0.
[iii] VicForests annual reports
[iv] Logged native forests mostly end up in landfill, not in buildings and furniture, Australian National University
[v] Affidavit of Malcolm McComb in the Supreme Court of Victoria at Melbourne Common Law Division Valuation, Compensation and Planning List between Environment East Gippsland Inc (ABN 30 865 568 417) Plaintiff and VicForests
[vi] Audit of timber harvesting operations in Victoria’s State forests Report of the 2020-21 Forest Audit Program IS377900-03 | Final 20/12/2021 Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Contract CMS102697
[vii] Native Forest Logging to end in 2030: Jaclyn Symes caught in act of hypocracy
[viii] Major Event Review Final Report p6
[ix] Media Release Premier of Victoria Bolstering The Victorian Forestry Plan
[x] Victorian Government announces multi-million-dollar plan to end native logging by 2030
[xi] Forestry News Boost to process more plantation timber
[xii] Forestry News Boost to process more plantation timber
[xiii] $2.7m Australian Sustainable Hardwoods expansion program completed
[xiv] La Trobe Valley Rail Freight Infrastructure Boost
[xv] Media Release 23 April 2019 – Report confirms the importance of Latrobe Valley Energy from Waste project
Questions
Australian Rural & Regional News asked a few questions of Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest.
ARR.News: People living outside the capitals in country Australia often feel that decisions that impact upon them greatly are made by politicians and bureaucrats to whom those decisions will make no difference whatsoever, people who have no ‘skin in the game’.
You say that Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest (NFGF) is a community group established in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs concerned about Victoria’s native forests.
Does this mean that none of your members is personally directly affected by any of the decisions regarding native forest harvesting? No-one’s work will be affected, none will lose their job, possibly never to work again, none may be left unable to pay rent or a mortgage, none may lose their home?
Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest: It’s likely that none of the NFGF members work in the logging industry, but this does not mean we are unaffected by the fate of native forests. We lost friends and family in the 2009 fires which burnt the Nillumbik towns of St Andrews and Strathewen. Nillumbik residents have to live with increased fire risk due to our proximity to logged forests in Kinglake and Mt Disappointment. Walking and riding tracks we use in forests in nearby Murrindindi Shire have their value destroyed through clear felling. Places we love are destroyed. The debris from logging is often burnt afterwards, with direct consequences for respiratory health for nearby residents.
At a wider scale, the whole community is impacted by the conversion of stored carbon to emissions, as well as reduction in water quantity and quality caused by logging native forests in water catchment areas.
A properly handled transition would mean no worker would ever experience the catastrophic scenario presented by this question. We contend that it has not been properly handled. In 2017 the Victorian government announced funding of more than $100 million for new plantations which would have increased the workforce in this sector significantly. The money was only just allocated 2 weeks ago – 5 years after it was announced.
Similarly, at the end of 2021 the government announced a $100 million package for workers, communities and businesses to assist with the transition.1 It was to be released ‘early 2022’ for expressions of interest. It was finally released 2 weeks ago, in September. The NFGF have been calling for both sources of funding to be allocated and repeated this call in our article last month, ‘Chaotic Transition to 100% Plantation Industry’ [Ed: this article].
Funding of new manufacturing and transportation facilities has prioritised larger mills such as those at Heyfield and Maryvale, and those who work in smaller mills have every right to be upset. But with government, not with NFGF.
1. Media Release, Premier of Victoria Bolstering The Victorian Forestry Plan
ARR.News: If Victoria and Australia cannot provide for its timber needs – and it is not clear that plantations alone can provide all our timber needs, in the short, medium or longer term – Australia will need to import timber, possibly from countries with lower forestry and sustainability standards or at a far greater cost.
Do you accept that preventing Victoria and Australia providing for its timber needs would be to encourage unsustainable forestry practices in other countries?
Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest: The premise that NFGF seeks to prevent Victoria and Australia providing for its timber needs is incorrect. What we argue against is the logging of native forests, which is primarily hardwood. Australia’s timber needs are expected to increase in the softwood sector, where it is in particular demand for housing construction such as wall and floor framing and roof trusses.2 Whilst hardwood is currently used in disposable transport pallets, and for some high-end flooring, decking and joinery, this is replaceable through a combination of supply chain redesign, and the use of alternatives such as plantation hardwood, veneers, laminates, MDF, particleboard or softwood.
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) forecasts a growing shortfall in softwood sawlog availability. An additional 200,000 to 250,000 hectares of new softwood plantations will be required by 2050 to meet an annual deficit of 3.4 million cubic metres per year.3 As noted above, the Victorian government has been slow to respond to this obvious need to grow our plantation estate.
In the pulpwood sector, paper manufacturer Nippon Paper currently produces most of its paper from plantation wood. Since Victoria currently exports 4.8 million tonnes of plantation woodchips per year,4 it could readily replace the approximately 600,000m3 of native forest wood used by the paper mill. No doubt Nippon would ask for the higher cost of haulage of plantation wood to be subsidised (it’s mainly grown in the south-west of Victoria and would need transportation to the south-east) but this would represent a better use of public money than the current system of subsidies. There would be additional haulage jobs and our state forests would remain intact.
In regards to imports. it is worth noting that forestry practices in other countries are the responsibility of those countries. Australia’s Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 (Cth) includes criminal penalties for those accepting illegally logged wood. Australia can further regulate the importation of unsustainable timber simply by specifying that any imports are Forest Stewardship Council certified. Such imports would not only be sustainable but would meet a higher standard than wood sourced from Australia. No state logging agency has been able to achieve this standard.
2. ABARES 2022, Australian forest and wood products statistics, September and December quarters 2021, ABARES series report, Canberra, June, DOI: https://doi.org/10.25814/esgd-1237. CC BY 4.0.
3. P 10 Whittle, L, Lock, P & Hug, B 2019, Economic potential for new plantation establishment in Australia: outlook to 2050, ABARES research report, Canberra, February. CC BY 4.0. https://doi.org/10.25814/5c6e1da578f9a
4. ABARES 2022, Australian forest and wood products statistics, September and December quarters 2021, ABARES series report, Canberra, June, DOI: https://doi.org/10.25814/esgd-1237. CC BY 4.0.
ARR.News: Is it not better to support the Australian forest and timber industries in developing more sustainable practices for the 21st century, including changes to current practices where necessary?
Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest: The logging industry has shown no willingness to change current practices. In her judgement in the Friends of Leadbeaters’ Possum v VicForests case of 2020,5 Justice Mortimer found that ‘existing forest management prescriptions have not been effective to arrest the decline of the Greater Glider and the Leadbeater’s possums’. This finding was not overturned on appeal, yet VicForests has done nothing since then to adjust its logging techniques. This reflects the reality that commercial logging of native forests is driven by a need to meet supply quotas and cannot accommodate conservation objectives at the same time.
5. Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum Inc v VicForests (No 4) [2020] FCA 704
ARR.News: There is much ongoing debate as to the impact of timber harvesting on bushfire risk (see the ARR.News ongoing debate page), indeed there are strong arguments that inadequate forest maintenance increases the risk of losing all habitat through catastrophic bushfires, and that when this happens, climate change is used a catch-all excuse even though proper maintenance could have reduced the risk.
What type and level of forest maintenance do you support?
Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest: The preamble to this question makes some big and debateable claims. Logging forest with heavy machinery to meet contracted supply quotas is not ‘maintenance’. A peer reviewed study of the terrible 2019-20 fires has shown that previously logged areas of forest were more badly affected than intact areas.6 Climate change is causing more dangerous weather conditions and therefore increasing the risk of bushfires. Again, this is supported by scientific study.7
To us, maintenance would be restoring the 30% of logged forest that has not regenerated,8 as well as creating campsites, creating and maintaining walks, establishing tourism facilities, creating hollows in dead trees, installing nest boxes, controlling pests and disease and providing a rapid fire response.
6. Logging “amplified” severity of Black Summer bushfires: https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/logging-amplified-severity-of-black-summer-bushfires
7. Bushfires and climate change in Australia, The Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub. https://nespclimate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/A4_4pp_brochure_NESP_ESCC_Bushfires_FINAL_Nov11_2019_WEB.pdf
8. After the Logging. Failing to Regrow Victoria’s Native Forests, Margaret Blakers, 2021. https://environmentvictoria.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/AfterTheLogging_Nov21-1.pdf
ARR.News: Would you support selective timber harvesting in a way that would allow for sustainable levels of forest dependent species?
Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest: Logging native forest is already carried out at a financial loss9 and selective logging would increase that loss. The vast network of roads required to achieve any commercial level of selective logging would degrade habitat, increase edge effect, pest and weed encroachment and fire risk.
9. End native forest logging in Victoria. Parliamentary budget office. 1 April 2020. https://sway.office.com/cQXoiKWO0HHNL6ml
Related story: Glider crisis
