Opinions divide on balancing conservation and timber
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Can conservation and the timber industry be reconciled? Studies are underway to form the spine of an agreement over that for Tasmania's native forests.
TranscriptCHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: The fight over Tasmania's forests has raged for more than a generation. Now talks to achieve a lasting peace deal are in what's supposed to be their final stage. The urgency of the task has been underscored by a new report that says forests are being cut down at twice the rate they're growing. Environmentalists are demanding this stop, but the industry has issued an unprecedented ultimatum to green groups: stop the protests or there's no deal. Martin Cuddihy reports.
MARTIN CUDDIHY, REPORTER: Just south of Hobart lies the Huon Valley. It's traditional timber country and the home of the Malaysian-owned Ta Ann timber veneer factory.
GREG HICKEY, TA ANN GROUP: Ta Ann takes what used to be known as regrowth pulp wood logs, and we cut them into short lengths, known as billets. We put them in the lathe and we peel thin sheets of wood from them, which is veneer.
MARTIN CUDDIHY The company sends the veneer it makes to Malaysia where it's turned into flooring for the Japanese market. The factory mostly uses regrowth from native forests because it can't process logs any bigger than 70 centimetres across. But it's been consistently targeted by environmental campaigners because most of the timber comes from native forests. There's been factory break-ins, market campaigns and even ships have been targeted. It's been bad for business.
GREG HICKEY: Our customers have reduced their orders because of the interference in the markets. That's caused us to restructure. We're having to downsize. We're going through a redundancy process at the moment.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: The source of the wood used by Ta Ann is regrowth in Tasmania's native forests which are logged by the State Government-owned Forestry Tasmania. But those forests are being harvested twice as fast as they can grow. That's the finding of Professor Jonathan West, a former Harvard academic and Wilderness Society director leading the studies that will form the basis of the forestry peace deal.
JONATHAN WEST, SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, UTAS: The findings are not my findings; they're using data from Forestry Tasmania with models provided by Forestry Tasmania and it was Forestry Tasmania personnel who ran them. The numbers are not inaccurate.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: But Professor West's report has prompted a furious backlash from an industry struggling for survival.
BOB GORDON, CEO, FORESTRY TASMANIA: What is unfortunate is he got his report incorrect. He has made false and incorrect statements about sustainable yield and about Forestry Tasmania's professionalism.
GREG HICKEY: It depends on how you determine what a sustainable cut is, and there's a number of ways to look at it. It depends on the rotation. So, that's yet - I think that's yet to be given any real credence.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: Professor West's primary recommendation is that harvesting has to be cut back to a sustainable level which will require renegotiating of existing contracts and less harvesting.
The report comes at a crucial time in the final chapter of negotiations. There's been forest disputes in this state for more than 30 years, but there's yet another stumbling block if peace is to be achieved this time. The Forest Industries Association of Tasmania has an extraordinary demand. It's refusing further negotiation unless green groups stop targeting forestry companies.
TERRY EDWARDS, FOREST INDUSTRIES ASSN: The campaigns they are embarked on at the moment are all about destroying business and destroying markets, so it's a form of economic terrorism, if you like.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: Economic terrorism, that's quite a strong term.
TERRY EDWARDS: Well it is a very strong term, but it's exactly what they are embarked upon.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: The association is negotiating on behalf of the timber industry and wants clauses built into the final agreement requiring environmentalists to stop protesting and targeting companies. Terry Edwards is calling them durability clauses.
TERRY EDWARDS: We would see the state and federal governments needing to impose durability requirements over and above any agreement that might be reached.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: Do you think that's likely?
TERRY EDWARDS: Well, not only is it likely, I think it's absolutely mandatory.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: The so-called durability clauses would be aimed at those Terry Edwards calls extremists.
TERRY EDWARDS: I would count amongst the extremists people like Markets for Change who are embarking on the market campaign we talked about, Still Wild, Still Threatened, the Huon Valley Environment Centre. But I would also include people like Senator Bob Brown.
BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: I'm happy to be labelled extreme if Terry Edwards sees himself as an average conservationist. I mean, we're not on the same spectrum.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown is bemused by the suggestion that he could be muzzled.
BOB BROWN: Well, what a whacky concept that in an open democracy the logging industry should be requiring that democracy halt for those people who want to save the forests.
GEOFF COUSINS, BUSINESSMAN: And I must say, if anyone by any amazing miracle ever managed to bring such laws into place, I'd be delighted to be prosecuted under them.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: High-profile businessman Geoff Cousins became involved in the forestry debate through his opposition to Gunns' pulp mill. He's convinced the idea won't work.
GEOFF COUSINS: It is basically trying to suppress the freely expressed views of organisations and individuals.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: At Ta Ann in the Huon Valley, the campaigns are already taking a human toll. Somewhere between 40 and 50 people will lose their jobs in the next week or so.
The State Government plans to table legislation binding the peace deal by June 30, but Jonathan West warns time is running out, and unless an agreement can be reached, it will be lose-lose.
JONATHAN WEST: It is entirely possible that we could lose both the forestry industry that's so important for our employment and the environmental forests that are so important to environmentalists. We could lose both unless an agreement is reached.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Martin Cuddihy reporting.
For further information, you can read the report of the Chairman of the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement's Independent Verification Group.