Some of NSW’s most respected and long-standing forest campaigners and scientists have today urged the Greens not to support the Nationals’ attempt to disallow the Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) method.
The joint call comes from the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, the state’s peak environment organisation; North East Forest Alliance and South East Forest Rescue, which have spent decades organising front line direct action to protect native forests; the
National Parks Association of NSW, the original proponent of the Great Koala National Park; and Australia’s leading scientific expert on forests, Professor David Linenmayer.
Together, the groups have played a central role in campaigns to protect native forests and end native forest logging in NSW for more than 40 years.
Statement
The joint statement from the signatories says:
‘The native forest logging industry is campaigning for INFM to be disallowed because they believe it will lead to an end to native forest logging. In announcing the disallowance motion, National’s Senator Ross Cadell describing the method as a “death knell” for the industry. We agree with that assessment.
‘The method creates a strong financial incentive for governments to stop logging and includes safeguards to ensure that destruction does not shift into private native forests, or continue by other means, as we have seen to devastating effect in Victoria and
Western Australia.
‘We have had enough of watching as logging machines smash the bush, erode the soils, and push countless native animals closer and closer to extinction.
‘Ending native forest logging is good for the climate and for the wildlife that depends on these forests. We need to stop releasing carbon through logging and allow recovering forests to draw carbon back out of the atmosphere.
‘It is deeply upsetting to see the fate of NSW’s forests treated as secondary to a broader ideological fight about Australia’s carbon market.
‘We understand that much of the opposition to INFM is not about this method itself but reflects a broader opposition to carbon markets. We share many of the concerns that have been raised about those markets. Governments should stop approving new fossil fuel
projects, and carbon credits should not be used as a substitute for genuine emissions reductions.
‘However, disallowing this method will not make that happen. It will not reform the ACCU market. It will not stop fossil fuel companies accessing carbon credits. What it will remove is a pathway to end native forest logging.’
Forests or climate?
The groups also rejected claims that supporting the method means choosing between protecting forests and protecting the climate, saying that ending native forest logging through this method will result in a substantial net reduction in emissions.’
During the first 15 years, only about one quarter of the extra carbon saved by ending logging can be turned into carbon credits. The other three quarters is additional emissions reduction that cannot be sold as offsets.
The forests then have to stay protected for 100 years. Over that full period, only around 10 per cent of the total carbon benefit is turned into credits, while around 90 per cent remains a genuine additional reduction in emissions.
The statement says: ‘Over the 100 years these forests must remain protected, only around 10 per cent of the total carbon benefit is converted into credits, meaning around 90 per cent remains an additional reduction in emissions.
‘So even if every credit generated under the method were used to offset emissions somewhere else, ending logging via this method would still leave substantially less carbon in the atmosphere than continuing to log the forests. That is the measurable outcome this method would deliver.
‘This is not a vote on whether Australia’s carbon market is perfect. It is a decision with very real consequences for forests that are being logged right now and threatened species that are losing their habitat right now.’
Collateral damage
‘We are asking the Greens not to allow those forests to become collateral damage in a broader fight about carbon markets.
‘If anyone has a viable pathway that will fund the end of native forest logging, guarantee major investment in forest restoration and First Nations management, and ensure the destruction doesn’t simply shift elsewhere or continue under another name, we will
enthusiastically support it.
‘But unless and until that alternative exists, we urge the Greens to not vote with the Nationals and the native forest logging industry to destroy the pathway we have.
‘The Greens have been long-term champions of forest protection. At this critical final moment, we are asking them to stand with us again and help us finally end native forest logging in NSW.’
Signatories: Jacqui Mumford, CEO, Nature Conservation Council of NSW; Dailan Pugh, North East Forest Alliance; Gary Dunnett, CEO, National Parks Association of NSW; Susie Russell, North Coast Environment Council; Scott Daines, President, South East Forest Rescue; David Lindenmayer, distinguished Professor, Australia National University.
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