Environmentalists say a Victorian government plan to preserve old growth forest may instead open up currently protected areas

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Environment groups have raised doubts about the Victorian government’s promise to protect 90,000 hectares of old growth forest, just weeks after the Andrews government announced a major transition plan for Victoria’s timber industry.

Six organisations, including The Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth and Environment Victoria, have expressed fears that the government will open up some areas currently mapped as old growth to logging.

In a letter to the premier, Daniel Andrews, and the environment minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, the groups have called on the government to clarify how it plans to implement its promises, which include an immediate ban on old growth logging.

Current maps used for native timber harvesting identify areas of old growth forest that are off limits to logging, but the groups fear some of these areas may be opened up under a new verification system.

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The government is developing a tool that would be used by VicForests to verify in the field what is and is not old growth. The groups say the existing models should instead be used to immediately protect all patches of forest mapped as old growth.

Amelia Young, the Wilderness Society’s Victorian campaigns manager, said they were concerned the government’s field verification plan would leave some areas currently identified as old growth vulnerable.

She said the groups were also concerned that old growth that falls outside of the existing mapped areas could “fall through the cracks”.

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“The government must immediately confirm which 90,000 hectares of modelled old growth it is protecting from logging,” Young said.

“It’s only necessary to verify what is and isn’t old growth in areas the government intends to log to make sure it is effectively banning old growth logging as promised.”

The concerns have similarities to those raised in NSW earlier this year about remapping of old growth forest that had been proposed by the NSW government.

“There is no need – indeed it is not practically feasible – to field-verify 90,000 hectares of mapped modelled old growth; it simply just requires immediate protection, in line with the promise,” the organisations say in their letter.

Ed Hill, the spokesman for Friends of the Earth and the Goongerah Environment Centre, said the lack of detail from the government since its announcement had caused concern.

“It’s just astonishing that the government would announce a ban on old growth logging and have no clear answer on how they will implement it,” he said.

“They’ve told Victorians that 90,000 hectares of old growth will be protected and they can’t tell Victorians how that’s going to happen. They announced an immediate ban on old growth logging and in East Gippsland we’re seeing old growth logging occurring right now in areas mapped as old growth that should be protected.”

Draft field procedures for the identification of old growth forest were released for public consultation by Victoria’s conservation regulator on 21 November 2019. The consultation will close on 23 December.

The draft procedures will be used by VicForests and monitored by the regulator.

“We’re protecting all old growth forest in the field – based on current models, there’s about 90,000 hectares of old growth forest left in areas that were previously available for timber harvesting,” a government spokeswoman said.







