“It brings people and ideas together for the conservation of Australia’s natural places through science, law, design and the community.”
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The Habitat Advocate’s first video (one small step for Habitat.. Mankind better lookout!)
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American film director, Tom Shadyac, has created a documentary film entitled ‘I AM: the shift is about to hit the fan’‘, which asks some of today’s most profound thinkers, two questions – What’s wrong with our world, and what can we do about it? This moving, inspiring film is about reconnecting with Nature and with others and indeed with ‘Reality‘. It has won the Audience Choice Award and the Student Choice Award at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride Colorado, where it premiered in February 2011:
DENMARK: A coalition of NGOs has today (September 4, 2012) written directly to the Prime Minister of Denmark’s Faroe Islands, Kaj Leo Johannesen, to express their deep concerns about the high number of pilot whales killed there so far this year.
In the year to August 24, 590 long-finned pilot whales have been killed on the Islands, bring the total number of pilot whales killed since the beginning of 2010 to 2,423 and raising serious human health, animal welfare and conservation concerns.
The coalition sending the letter comprises the Environmental Investigation Agency, Animal Welfare Institute, Campaign Whale, Cetacean Society International, Dyrenes Venner, Humane Society International, OceanCare, Pro Wildlife and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
In the year to August 24, 590 long-finned pilot whales have been killed on the Islands, bring the total number of pilot whales killed since the beginning of 2010 to 2,423 and raising serious human health, animal welfare and conservation concerns.
Meat and blubber from the animals are distributed and sold in the Faroe Islands for human consumption, despite evidence of high levels of mercury and PCBs. Long-term research undertaken by Danish and Faroese scientists has revealed that consumption of pilot whale meat and blubber has detrimental effects on the development of foetal nervous and immune systems, and increases the risk of Parkinson’s disease, hypertension, arteriosclerosis of the carotid arteries in adults and Type II diabetes.
The Faroe Islands’ Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientist have jointly issued health warnings several times. In an open letter to the Government on August 8, 2008 they stated that pilot whale should no longer be used for human consumption.
This conclusion was recently repeated in the 2012 review article “Dietary recommendations regarding pilot whale meat and blubber in the Faroe Islands” by Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen, based on additional long-term studies.
There is broad scientific agreement on the strong link between mercury in cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) products and a variety of human diseases and medical conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, arteriosclerosis, immune suppression and hypertension. Threats to children include autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
In July 2012 at its annual meeting, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) adopted by consensus a resolution proposed by the European Union IWC members including Denmark, requesting increased cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO). It encourages the WHO to review scientific publications regarding contaminants in cetacean products and provide updated advice for consumers. It also urges governments to remain vigilant in responsibly informing consumers of the health effects associated with the consumption of polluted cetacean products, and taking steps to counter any negative effects based on rigorous scientific advice and clear risk assessments.
Unfortunately, the Government of the Faroe Islands has so far failed to adopt the recommendations of its own scientific experts to end the consumption of pilot whale, and instead supports continuation of the ‘grinds’ (the traditional name given to the style of kill in which whales are stranded and then slaughtered) and the consumption of these polluted whale products.
Indeed, if all the meat and blubber of the 590 whales killed this year is consumed, it will by far exceed the Faroese Government’s June 2011 guidelines which recommend a maximum of one meal per month.
Pilot whales tend to migrate to the calmer waters around the Faroe Islands to give birth from April to July. Pilot whale hunts frequently occur during the breeding season, despite there being agreement internationally that hunting during breeding seasons should be avoided to allow for stable populations to endure. For this reason, targeting animals accompanied by calves is expressly forbidden by the IWC – the world’s expert cetacean management authority.
The status of cetaceans occurring around the Faroe Islands is uncertain in many cases and the impacts of the hunts which take entire family groups is also unknown. Pilot whales are protected under EU law; many of the pilot whales occurring in Faroese waters also travel to EU waters.
The methods used to kill whales in the Faroe Islands have been subject to international criticism for decades. In the hunts known as ‘grinds’, large family groups of whales are driven by boats into a bay where they are crudely killed with hooks and knives. Pilot whales are known for their highly social behaviours and close-knit family groups.
Although Faroese authorities claim killing methods have improved, there is no documentary evidence to prove this. The grinds are a lengthy process that also involves extreme distress for the whales associated with the chasing, separation of social groups, and individual whales experiencing close family members being slaughtered. This is in addition to the inherent cruelty associated with the killing methods..
In conclusion and in consideration of the serious concerns raised, the nine signatory organisations – EIA, Animal Welfare Institute, Campaign Whale, Cetacean Society International, Dyrenes Venner, Humane Society International, OceanCare, Pro Wildlife and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society – have urged Prime Minister Johannesen, his Government and the Faroese people to bring a permanent end to the hunting of pilot whales and other cetacean species in the interests of human health, animal welfare and conservation.
Thanks for bringing this ecologically unsustainable and inhumane slaughter of whales to our attention. I have so far signed numerous petitions to stop this slaughter in Denmark and Japan with no effect, so I hope that this time the coalition of NGOs will succeed in stopping it.
To me it is unbelievable that children are encouraged to take part in this slaughter thereby perpetuating this cultural maladaptation that is destroying future livability on earth.
The irony is that what we do to animals eventually comes back to us. As top predators we are not immune to pollution and unfortunately we only take action when it starts to affect our health, I suppose Mine Mata was long time ago and we forgot about it.
Make no mistake ..it actually is an addictive sport. No longer a necessity for primitive needs, this has become a modern thrill of enjoying a ritualistic mass slaughtering of huge benevolent beings by chasing, gaffing, and slicing throats among fellow hunters sharing the day long adrenaline rush. The ancient survival practice has been reduced to little more than an exciting, addictive bloodsport evidenced by their refusal to quit though it’s not subsistence and many there disapprove.
In Berridale, New South Wales, in the north-west foothills of the Australian Alps, there are hardly any trees left now. Generations of colonists have clearfelled forests of Australian Snow Gums en mass for ‘high country’ beef pasture.
Each Autumn when the bored local Rural Fire Service (RFS) is searching for something to justify its funding, it sets fire to the natural landscape on the basis of doing so being a bushfire ‘mitigation strategy‘. ‘Burn the forest before it burns’. Last month the Berridale RFS burned grasslands and the few surviving isolated old snow gums, and even the odd homestead by accident.
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“We burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo – men, women and children. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”
~ Robert McNamara (Architect of the US War Against the Vietnamese’)
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‘Berridale is a small country town in the famed Snowy Mountains ‘high country‘ of Australia, just a short trip from Australia’s highest peaks (Australian Alps) – about 60km from Mount Kosciuszko.
Vast grassy slopes and pastoral plains surround Berridale these days, all cleared by our forebears. Yet one can still find traces of the old country, dotted by ancient magnificent granite boulders holding old fella wisdom of the original people of this land. It was for eons blanketed by wild twisted Snow Gum forests and grand and rugged rivers coursed through this area giving vital sustenance to the diverse species of this place. Traditional Aboriginal people hold insight to the links between plants, animals and their surroundings.
Bucolic British..’Berridale’
..replicated in New South Wales
Australia (other side of planet)
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The Northern Corroboree Frog and Lesueur’s Tree Frog are long gone away from long-clearfelled Berridale.
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‘When one can no longer hear the frogs,
Nature has stopped breathing and has passed away.’
( Ed. – a metaphor to my aunt who passed away this morning)
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So once again, the Rural Fire Service has lit fires around Berridale, lighting fires so that they may save the town from bushfires…“We had to destroy the village in order to save it”
Over recent weeks the Rural Fire Service across New South Wales has lit multiple fires it euphemistically labels as ‘hazard reduction‘ – any rich ground cover that may provide habitat foir groudn dwelling mammals is deemed a fuel and therefore a hazard. It must be therefore burned before it burns. The fires the RFS light are ‘prescribed burns‘, they precribe that a bushfire must be started so they start one.
It is like an arsonist deciding it is a good idea to light a bushfire and so lights one, like Brendan Sokaluk did at Churchill in Victoria on 7th Febuary 2009. The only difference is that because the RFS is a government funded agency it has legal immunity – read ‘impunity‘.
On 5th September, it was reported that ‘about 50 grass, scrub and bushfires have burned across NSW during a tough start to the bushfire season.’
Included was a scub fire in Budderoo National Park, near Kiama, burning out of control. It was one of those prescribed burns that had escaped.
So the reports read that crews from the NSWRFS and National Parks and Wildlife Service were using waterbombing aircraft to contain the fire, which was burning in inaccessible terrain, as if it was a wildfire that had started by lightning, not deliberately. It is almost like they light fires to create work for themselves, and destroy vast areas of bushland in the process.
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Snow Gums do not enjoy being burned to death
So then the RFS declares a Total Fire Ban across most of New South Wales, so that residents don’t their barbeques in case they start a bushfire.
The hazard reduction burn at Berridale, burned out 200 hectares of largely grassly scrubland, taking with it old snow gums that must have been a few hundred years old in come cases.
A historic homestead was destroyed in the blaze. It was a lucky escape for Brian Woodhouse’s elderly mother, who was in the Myack homestead as the fire approached.
“She’s 86 years old and suffers dementia,” Mr Woodhouse said.
“This has been her home for all her life and this is the only place that she has got a touch of reality. Here at her home she knows where everything is.”
Mr Woodhouse said passers-by saved his mother’s life.
“One of the carers came around that day to have lunch with her and had just left after lunch,” he said. “She only travelled about 2 kilometres and she could see the fire, so she did a U-turn and raced back and got her out, with the help of a couple of the young Snowy River Shire Council guys.”
This immorality of setting fires seems extracted straight out of Robert McNamara’s military operating and debrief manual.
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Snow Gums in their natural alpine environment
[Source: vjmite, TrekEarth.com]
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Footnote
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“We had to destroy the village in order to save it” is an infamous quote by US Army Major Booris in 1968 in the immediate aftermath of the Tet Offensive by North Vietnam forces.
It has come to symbolise the absurdity of war and the United States immoral prosecution of the Vietnam War. The quote was made famous by its reporting by a young Associated Press reporter, Peter Arnettwho had been assigned to report on the battle of Ben Tre during the Tet Offensive. For two days, a small American unit had battled the Vietcong, who in turn had killed many villagers. Arnett entered Ben Tre after it had finally been secured and interviewed a number of Army officers.
The following is believed to be the true account:
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Saving Ben Tre: About the famous quote of the Vietnamese 1968 Tet Offensive: “We Had To Destroy Ben Tre In Order To Save It”
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‘I was the Commanding Officer of Task Force Builder, an Army engineer group of 60 soldiers that was stationed in the small rural village of Rach Kein, Vietnam in 1968. Rach Kein was approximately 20 miles SW of Saigon, located in Long An Province. Our base camp was next to the base camp of the 3/39 Infantry Battalion of the 9th Infantry Division.
Ben Tre, Vietnam, is a moderately size town that is located on the Mekong River about 25 miles SE of Rach Kein. It was much bigger than Rach Kein, probably even bigger than the town of Long An.
During the first week of the Tet Offensive the VC made their big move of attacking Saigon. The 3/39 Inf. was initially sent to fight in the big battle for Saigon. This left us alone to face an NVA regiment of 5,000 men that surrounded us on January 29. We survived that. And we remained surrounded and cut off for several weeks. As best I recall, the 3/39 Inf. was in Saigon for about two weeks. I certainly remember this, because while they were gone from Rach Kein we were on our own as far as defending against ground attacks. These must have been likely, for at one point, the 9th Inf. Div. sent in several companies of the 2/39 Inf. to bolster the town defenses and to conduct sweeps around Rach Kein while the 3/39 was away.
I especially remember that one platoon of infantry was wiped out in a well laid ambush in an open rice paddy. It was just a few hundred yards from where we eventually built a school near the first village North of Rach Kein (can’t remember its name). The VC had cleverly built machinegun bunkers into the rice paddy dikes (it was the dry season), and the infantry walked right up to them before the VC opened fire.
Then the 3/39 returned. Or I should say that 75 percent of them returned. The fighting in Saigon had been intense. After only a few days rest, they were air-lifted by chopper to retake the town of Ben Tre. Ben Tre had been occupied by the VC during Tet. The VC had dug in heavily, and were not ready to retreat without a big fight. So the still exhausted and depleted infantry troops of the 3/39 were thrown into another vicious fight. I cannot tell you how much respect that I have for those guys. True heroes, every one of them. Tough, plucky, and mostly draftees. I still remember my wonder at the ability of America’s youth to endure.
I sometimes wonder if I am the only one who remembers them. So I willingly tell this story, so you can help me to remember. Their deeds should not be forgotten. The 3/39 Inf. Bn. suffered 100% casualties during the year 1968. I watched it. It is something that still haunts me. Eight hundred young men gone, dying bravely to serve the country they so loved.
Anyway, the fighting in Ben Tre went badly for the Americans. House-to-house all the way. The VC were so well dug in and barricaded that progress got stalled. So, in desperation, artillery and air strikes were called in on the town. Much of the town was heavily damaged in the resulting melee, but the town was retaken.
Several days later, Major Robert Black (the Rach Kein U.S. Army Advisor) invited me to attend with him an evening briefing that the 3/39 was going to give for a group of journalists and Saigon army brass. I had never before been invited to attend an infantry battalion briefing. I accepted the invitation. The briefing was held in a Vietnamese house that served as the S-3 office. It was about 7 houses East of where the VC barbershop was at one time set up. The house was on the left side of the road as you drove through the infantry compound, just about across from the infantry mess hall.
Anyway, the living room of the house was packed, mostly with civilians. The purpose of the briefing was to explain the battle of Ben Tre. Such briefings are usually conducted by the S-3, in this case, Major Booris. He was a heavy-set fellow.
He was also not my favorite officer. This was because he was the guy who told the infantry on guard to open fire on us the morning when we were walking back to Rach Kein across the rice paddies. This was when we had chased the VC who had ambushed the infantry Road Runners that one infamous and well-remembered morning (but that is another story). Fortunately for us, the infantry sergeant (an E-5) on duty had ignored the major’s orders. I’ll never forget his grin as he told me that he had saved our bacon by ignoring the S-3’s orders. He could clearly see that we were friendlies, so he withheld his fire.
Anyway, at one point the journalists were pressing Major Booris to explain why it had been necessary to wipe out the town. They were definitely pressing the point that perhaps too much force had been applied by the US forces. Major Booris was trying his best to put a good face on the situation. But at one point he got flustered, and blurted out, “We had to destroy Ben Tre in order to save it.” I have to admit that I almost laughed when he said that. It was a really unfortunate comment. But Major Booris, in his defense, was trying his best to defend his battalion’s honor. His CO, Lt. Colonel Anthony P. Deluca, deftly jumped to his feet and interceded to rescue Major Booris from this difficult moment. He smoothly carried the rest of the conversation. I really liked LTC Deluca. He was a good combat leader, and he was always fair to Task Force Builder.
Anyway, that was the only briefing of the infantry that I ever attended. But it turned out to be the most famous. Some of the journalists present at that briefing seized Major Booris’ comment, and they really publicized it. As I recall, it appeared on the cover of Newsweek or Time magazine within the month. And it has gone down in history as an example of the some of the insanity that was Vietnam.
Last year I was reading an historical assessment of the Vietnam War. The famous historian who wrote it actually challenged whether or not that Ben Tre statement was ever made. Well I know, because I witnessed it being made. I wrote to the historian, explaining this. I hope that he got my message.’
Regards,
Michael D. Miller
Former Captain, US Army Corps of Engineers
Commander, Task Force Builder, 1968
46th Engineer Battalion
159th Engineer Group
The RFS has recently conducted 2 ‘hazard reductions’ in the vicinty of Mt Riverview, Blue Mountains NSW. The first was just over two weeks ago, when on an gusty afternoon as a cold front swept through I could see leaping flames in the distance from the highway at Warrimoo, i immediately called home and told them that there must be a large bushfire in the area, as it would be absolutely insane to be doing a hazard reduction in the present conditions…. only to find out that the RFS has persisted with a planned burn regardless of the conditions only 1 or 2 kilometres from a residential area. I had lost all faith after this.
But then…… a couple of days ago I parked my car behijd the shops at Mt Riverview to go on my favourite running trail into the bush, only to find that the RFS had been there, in a stretch of bush that already has a sealed road between the houses and the bush, and also a 30metre APZ which is cleared of all scrub with only several trees left standing, the RFS had decided it was neccesary to burn from the APZ boundary all the way to the escarpment a further 60 m into the bush. Much to my horror, this is the exact area where I have released 2 Eastern Bearded Dragons which I have rescued from the road in the previous week, unfortunately there were several others that apparently werent seen or were ignored by motorists that have been run over. There are many places in Mt Riverview where thick bush comes right up to the fences but the RFS burnt an area which poses no hazard at all to property. I figure they must have used it for a training exercise, there would be no other reason.
RFS = something for bored men who like fire to do on the weekends. Instead, go and volunteer for an organisation which is actually trying to solve issues. You may think you are making a difference to peoples lives, but you are having a massive and detrimental impact on the lives of our native wildlife.
RFS, go and get an education.
I am both horrified by this account of the RFS’s destruction of the remnant snow gums and full of admiration for the author and his attempts at saving some of the gums.
Clearly he, like Mal Dibden in Deborah Bird Rose’s book, ”Reports from a Wild Country – Ethics for Decolonization”, chapter 11, is connected with the natural world, while the RFS’s action shows that its members, with the exception of few, do not see themselves as being in any way connected with it.
Further, the callousness with which the RFS justifies the ecological damage caused by its actions demonstrates that it either suppresses or has no ethics (see Rose above cited, p7).
The same lack of ethics applies to Major Booris for his justification of the destruction of Ben Tre and, of course, to all the authorities responsible for the destruction of the natural environment all over Australia.
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service setting fire to native habitat while the weather is calm. What fauna, it’s an ‘Ecological Burn’?
This week’s hazard reduction burn in Barrington Tops NP, north of Dungog
[Source: Photo by Andy Boleyn, ^http://newcastleonhunter.com/2012/08/npws-burning-down-the-tops/]
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It’s that time of year across Australia, when bush arson is deemed acceptable (even noble) , so long as it is ‘prescribed‘ by government, even when it often gets out of control.
Australia’s native habitat is deliberately set fire to by Australian Government agencies every year, just in case it burns, which means that frequently they can’t put it out.
Dropping petrol bombs by immoral helicopter pilots ..”hey man, this is like Nam all over again!”
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None of the arson rationale respects native wildlife, as with illegal bush arsonists. There is little difference on wildlife impact as to who sets fire to their habitat – illegal or government sanctioned. In the above burn, Acting NPWS Barrington Tops Area Manager Peter Beard, justifies setting fire to wildlife habitat thus:
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“Hazard reduction burn aims to protect lives and property, whilst maintaining the biodiversity of the World Heritage-listed park.”
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Yet it is carried out without any thought or knowledge about the ecological impacts upon ground dwelling fauna populations or upon flora species that are fire sensitive nor the complex and fragile co-existences. Where are the independent scientific wildlife counts before and after each prescribed arson sortie? Where is the qualified wildlife ecologist’s report that made public that says burning this forest is not harmful?
The fire lighting is not even mosaic. It is blanket, broadscale and indiscriminate. Aerial incendiaries are dropped along the ridge top by helicopter casuing multiple ignition points so that the fire takes hold.
Aerial ‘habitat reduction’ occurs across National Parks and World Heritage Areas – no habitat is sacrosanct. It is euphemistically branded ‘Biodiversity Burning’ – fire is good for wildlife – watch them run, watch the Echinas and Wombats burn!
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It is one of many hundred being conducted across New South Wales native landscapes by the National Parks and Wildlife Services as well as by the Rural Fires Service and with assistance from regional fire brigades. Another 25 burns covering 6000ha are planned in the next week, including burns in In Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
Rather through unrelenting government propaganda, all Australian native vegetation is demonised as a ‘threat‘, a ‘hazard‘ and as ‘fuel‘ – just like the Christian church has for centuries demonised non-believers as heathens.
National Parks are deemed by Australian governments as a ‘hazards’!
It is a town park mentality – a bit of greenery for people to enjoy at weekends.
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It doesn’t take much effort by a layperson to access a computer, download Google Earth and zoom into New South Wales, then to realise that the native vegetation that remains is dotted in islands within vast landscapes of denuded cleared farmland, and then to respect that if the native wildlife exist anywhere, they are in these vegetation islands.
This is Destination New South Wales..about 90% deforested, or burned, or farmed, or mined, or housed or else deserted
“There are some amazing natural attractions in New South Wales. From the coast to the country you’re spoilt for choice. All over this state you can meander at your own pace and discover a whole world of extraordinary natural wonders. With close to 900 ^NSW national parks, forests and reserves, the State features the most diverse nature experiences in Australia ranging from rainforests, marine parks, a city within a national park, outback landscapes, mountains, islands and World-heritage listed areas.”
Then for these islands of native vegetation to be deliberately set fire to can only contribue to native wildlife extinctions. It doesn’t take more than a lay person to realise this by deduction. Yet wildlife extinction is exactly what these senseless fatalistic government bush arson culls are doing every year. Setting fire to wildlife habitat is wildlife desecration, just like an invading army razing a village.
Rural fire agencies throughout Australia are no different in mindset to paid professional urban fire brigades – their mandate is to serve only to protect human life and property – but all native vegetation and wildlife is demonised as a liability and dismissed as only a risk to human life and property. The key distinction between rural fire fighters and their urban counterparts is that the urban fire fighters are paid professionals. Governments save billions by not paying rural firefighters and by not training them to the skill level of urban firefighters – yet operationally their job is exactly the same. Volunteers have been conned by governments to being cheap fingers in the dyke, so that taxes can be channelled elsewhere instead of properly into emergency management.
When there is a wildfire under extreme bushfire weather conditions, the ill-equipped, under=prepared and under-resourced bushfire agenecies know full well, that they cannot reliably detect, reach or suppress ignitions most of the time. They are depressing forced to rely upon the vagrancies of wind changes to dictate the impact of wildfires and the fate to lives and property.
So that is why government is so keen to prescribe preventative fighting fire with fire. If the bush is burned so that there is litte to burn then when a wildfire erupts in hot, dry and windy conditions the risk is less.
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.. one has to destroy the village to save it!
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Oddly this mindset is not allowed to apply to plantation forests – because they are deemed ‘economic assets’ and so therefor evaluable and therefore worth protecting from fire.
Of course, after every major fire involving loss of human life, such as in Victoria in 2009, all the politicians come out crying “shocking, shocking, shocking”, promising expensive enquiries, promising more resourcing, and that it will never happen again. All the while, politicians full well know that when the media cameras lose interest, it is cheap volunteer business as usual, because by the time the next wildfire, they will be happily lifestyle pensioned out – polly gold card privileges and all.
The Victorian Bushfires of 2009 that caused the deaths of 173 people were in the main caused initially by either powerline neglect and arson. The fire brigade was not prepared for a catastrophe despite the bushfire danger index forecast days before to be well off the scale. The underprepared, under-resourced Dad’s Army preparedness contributed to the 173 deaths.
Instead, all Australian and State governments have blamed the Australian wildlife habitat for being the fuel like and ‘accessory before the fact’. It was the victim.
So hazard reduction is now ramped up Australia wide. In New South Wales hazard reduction this year is the NSW Government’s response strategy, costing $62 million “to boost wildfire preparedness“. Under the NSW NPWS ‘Enhanced Bushfire Management Programme’, NPWS aims to double the number of hazard reduction hectares each year, for the next five years. NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker said hazard reduction work is part of an ongoing State-wide operation.
If there is unburnt bush, it will be targeted for burning! Burn it before it burns, god damn! If the Rural Fire Starters had access to B52s and Agent Orange, they sure the would deploy both, such is the inculcated bushphobic mindset.
“NPWS crews are already taking advantage of favourable spring weather to carry out 12 burns covering more than 2,500 hectares of national park in the past fortnight.”
The NSW Government is doing everything it can to reduce the risk of fire, including in our national parks – particularly with a drier, hotter summer than we’ve recently experience predicted.”
Broadscale Hazard Reduction ‘So when summer comes we should be right – there’ll be nothing left to burn!’‘Job Done!‘
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It is a wicked species-anhilating strategy that most in the broader community ignorantly accept as justified, because government propaganda threats say so and because few folk have the wisdom or courage to dare question the propaganda.
Woops, the prescribed burn got out of controlThat’s ok its only Fraser Island World Heritage – it’ll grow back!
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Last weekend, a 12-year-old boy was charged with lighting a bushfire at Watannobi on the Central Coast around lunch time. Just like the fire fighters he must be watching and learning from, the bushfire was lit using multiple ignition points so that it took hold. Sure enough, the blaze quickly escalated. In the end some eighty hectares of native vegetation and grassland were burnt before the fire was contained in the mid afternoon.
He may be charged now, but no doubt he is recruitment material for the local Rural Fire Starters when he gets older.
But unlike the State-sanctioned arsonists, the boy was publicly apologetic for what he had done, realising that it was wrong. To his credit he said:
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“I’m sorry for what I have done .. and I won’t do it again.”
Government-sanctioned arsonists know what they are doing is wrong – but the Firie peer pressure is too great
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Why don’t gardeners of Australian native gardens follow the National Parks biodiversity burning mantra and set fire to their gardens? Because they respect the unburnt value of Australia’s flora.
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Why do we not see much wildlife anymore in National Parks?
The question raised in this article about the effects of the so called ecological burns on fauna and fire sensitive flora is very valid indeed, as so far there is very little research done on what constitutes an appropriate fire regime for the diversity of the habitats where the burns are being claimed to be ecological burns, thereby implying that they are of ecological benefit to the conservation of the habitats’ biodiversity. What’s more, the fragmented nature of many of the remnants of Australia’s habitats, means that conducting the necessary research has the high probability of resulting in irreversible loss of species as the isolation prevents species recolonization.
The problem is even worse with prescribed burns as the effects on fauna and flora are not even considered. The article’s title is therefore very appropriate.
Excellent article. Makes me wonder why these management activities are considered to be OK by so many in the conservation movement.
Particularly on the NSW south coast where burning is being imposed on declining forests.
The loss of biodiversity in NPs as opposed to what the RFAs require and the fact that conservation groups don’t talk about it, but provide tacit support for inept and inappropriate management, makes their claims about wanting to stop woodchipping seem pretty vacuous.
DELHI, INDIA: Tiger Range Countries meet in Delhi, India next week (May 2012) to evaluate progress of the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP) in what will be a true test of their national commitment to end the tiger trade.
The GTRP was signed into existence in November 2010 in St Petersburg, Russia, with the common objective of doubling the world’s wild tiger population by 2022.
The agenda for the Delhi meeting, from May 15-17, includes issues which to date have received too little attention in this forum – demand reduction and effective enforcement.
With final preparations for the meeting underway, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) today warned that concrete action is needed to shut down tiger breeding operations and destroy their stockpiles of tiger skins and bones if the GTRP is to retain serious credibility.
EIA lead campaigner Debbie Banks said: “Successful demand reduction will be dependent on the closure of operations that breed tigers for trade in their parts and derivatives, and those that provide the living specimens to stock such operations.”
Operations in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam have been implicated in the illegal international trade; in China, breeders are allowed to sell farmed tiger skins on the domestic market.
“This trade simply serves to perpetuate demand, undermining enforcement efforts and sending mixed messages to consumers,” added Banks.
Tiger Farming was hotly debated in 2007 at the 14th Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), where the majority of Parties voted against domestic and international trade in parts of farmed tigers and called for a phasing out of such operations.
No country has yet reported on what action is being taken to fulfil the CITES decision.
While there have been recent high profile seizures and arrests in Thailand, and Vietnam has prosecuted at least one tiger farm owner, there is no report of action against tiger farmers in Laos; China stated in March 2011 that it had inspected tiger breeding operations, but it has not shared information on any convictions of those found selling tiger bone and products.
China also allows tiger breeding operations to maintain freezers full of tiger carcasses, instead of destroying them as urged by CITES. While tiger bone trade is currently prohibited, China has a scheme for registering, labelling and selling the skins but refuses to disclose how many skins have entered the scheme.
“How can these stockpiles possibly be justified?” asked Banks. “Maintaining stockpiles serves no conservation purpose; it only creates confusion and speculates that one day these parts may be traded for profit. That runs completely counter to a commitment to end tiger trade and totally undermines efforts at demand reduction.
“For the credibility of the GTRP, we need to see unequivocal and emphatic action to shut down all commercial tiger breeding operations and to transparently destroy the stockpiles.”
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The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is a UK-based Non Governmental Organisation and charitable trust (registered charity number 1040615) that investigates and campaigns against a wide range of environmental crimes, including illegal wildlife trade, illegal logging, hazardous waste, and trade in climate and ozone-altering chemicals.
Skin trade registration scheme. In 2007, China introduced a mechanism for registering and selling skins from ‘legal’ sources, including captive tigers. EIA has been trying to find out how many skins have been registered, sold, etc, and how legality is determined – read more at http://www.eia-international.org/enforcement-and-asian-big-cats
Auctions of tiger bone wine. In 2011, NGOs reported there was to be a sale of Tiger Bone Wine in Beijing. This was stopped by the SFA after an outcry, but EIA research shows many more sales were advertised and may have gone ahead. We urgently need clarification on these – read more at http://www.eia-international.org/tiger-bone-wine-auctions-in-china
Enforcement action. China has recently reported a number of enforcement actions on wildlife crime in general, but from the reports available it seems it has not focused efforts in the provinces EIA has highlighted as key to the tiger and Asian big cat trade. Criminals we have identified trading in Asian big cat parts between 2005-09 were still operating in July 2011. China has not provided any evidence of targeted enforcement action against known criminals and trade hotspots.
I do fully agree with EIA that “operations that breed tigers for trade in their parts and derivatives” need to be shut down if the protection of tigers in the wild is to be successful, as the legal trade perpetuates the unsubstantiated believe in the medical, body building and aphrodisiac value of tiger parts and, unless the fallacy of these believes is exposed, the poaching of wild tigers for this lucrative trade will continue.
Does wilderness still matter? Or is it just a nostalgic and overblown idea from the 1960s that has worn out its usefulness?
Unsurprisingly, the Colong Foundation for Wilderness vigorously asserts that wilderness is more important than ever. As the global environment plummets into crisis, ‘business as usual’ is rushing ever more recklessly in the opposite direction, chasing the almighty dollar. Our parks, reserves and natural areas are everywhere imperilled, by climate change, mining, tourism and many other threats. Wilderness remains a sanctuary and an insurance against the complete exploitation of nature.
Which is why the Colong Foundation has taken up the baton again for the Sixth National Wilderness Conference, established by Geoff Mosley and the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1977. The 5th and most recent conference, Celebrating Wilderness, was hosted by the Colong Foundation in 2006.
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6th National Wilderness Conference
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The 6th National Wilderness Conference will be held in Sydney on 21-23 September 2012 and co-presented by the NSW National Parks Association and the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.
With environmental protection laws under attack in all states and nationally, this conference comes at a critical time. So if you haven’t signed up for this conference yet, now’s the time. And don’t forget the Conference dinner, $40 for three beautiful courses at Maynard’s Café, Newtown.
I am convinced that a radical rethink about conservation of our natural environment has to be done because the loss of biodiversity is getting worse, more and more plants and animals are becoming endangered and “business as usual” cannot continue. (see William R. Catton’s book, “Overshoot, the Ecological Basis of revolutionary Change”)
I think that wilderness, natural environment and its ecosystem services is of paramount importance to the survival of life, including ours on earth. Therefore National Wilderness Conference is very important.
I hope that the delegates will make meaningful decisions about the influence of population growth, habitat loss and inadequacy of present environmental laws on the conservation of the natural environment.
I also hope that, as David Suzuki has pointed out on p. 59 of his book “The Legacy“, the delegates to this conference will not be distracted by immediate problems from addressing the root causes of our destructiveness.
‘National Parks’ in Australia are merely State Parks They exist at the whim of State politicians
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In Australia, ‘National Parks‘ are a misnomer.
National Parks across Australia are not protected, conserved and managed by the Australian Government at national level, as the name would suggest. Instead, the custodial responsibility is delegated to the respective States.
National parks in each Australian State, such as in New South Wales, or Queensland or Tasmania, are protected, conserved and managed under that State’s national parks legislation, not under national legislation. So in Australia, the term ‘National Park‘ is quite misleading. Australians presume that our national parks are nationally protected, but they are not.
The respective ‘National Parks and Wildlife Services‘ are similarly also a misnomer. Each State and Territory has its own separate National Parks and Wildlife Service. In New South Wales (NSW), ‘national parks’ are managed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. In Tasmania, the State-controlled Parks and Wildlife Service manages national parks only in Tasmania.
In Victoria, the State-based agency is called Parks Victoria, which manages national parks in Victoria under Victorian legislation – the Parks Victoria Act 1998 and reports to the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change. While in Queensland, the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service comes under the Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing.
When a government lumps national parks with racing, it regards the values of natural heritage in anthropocentric exploitative terms.
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Neglectful Underfunding
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Worse is that the delegated State Government custodians are invariably so short of funding, that critical funding to properly protect, control and manage national parks is not provided. The Australian Government knows this, yet withholds vital funding so that the primary duties of protecting and conserving national parks can be fundamentally fulfilled.
State Governments select other funding priorities according to election cycles. In the 2012-13 budget year, the NSW Government has cut $55 million in recurrent funding and $22 million in capital expenditure budget in its management of national parks and to help protect native fauna. [Source: ‘NSW environment suffers $77m budget cut’, Jun 12 2012, ^http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8482272/nsw-environment-suffers-77m-budget-cut]
In Queensland, the State Government in 2012 has not only removed one hundred jobs from the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, closed regional offices, and reduced the number of QPWS regions from nine to six, but plans to revoke 875,000 hectares of national parks land across the State. [Source: ‘LNP Government: Mean To Students, Tricky On National Parks’, by Annastacia Palaszczuk, 20120719, ^http://www.queenslandlabor.org/2012/07/19/lnp-government-mean-to-students-tricky-on-national-parks/]
In Victoria in 2012, more than 130 jobs have been cut from Parks Victoria and several hundred from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE). [Source: ‘Jobs and courses feel Budget strain’, by Kate Dowler, Weekly Times Now, 20120509, ^http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/05/09/479741_national-news.html]
Last Easter in April 2012, some state and national parks are facing industrial action by Parks Victoria rangers belonging to the Community and Public Sector Union.
‘On the surface this may appear to be a simple wage dispute, but in fact it’s just a symptom of a larger and much more serious disease. It’s no secret that Parks Victoria is suffering from chronic underfunding. Parks and reserves across Victoria are seeing the results of decades of government cut-backs. These funding cuts affect our parks and reserves in many ways. From the supply of basic amenities (such as toilet rolls), all the way to establishing and maintaining user facilities such as walking and mountain bike trails as well as creating new management and environmental plans for the future. Looking after our public spaces is, quite simply, a massive job and if it is to be done correctly it will require substantial government funding.
Many Parks Victoria rangers do an amazing job in increasingly difficult circumstances. One of my ranger friends commented that ‘productivity improvements’ was in fact government speak for ‘saving money’. [Source: ‘Parks Victoria: Death By a Thousand Cuts’, by lenn Tempest, April 6, 2012, ^http://osp.com.au/?p=3253]
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Belittling the National Parks Status
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Just as bad is that the role of National Parks and Wildlife Service at each State jurisdiction has become swallowed up within mega-departmental portfolios. Australia used to have dedicated ministers for environment. Environment was their sole responsibility and national parks featured as a key part of that responsibility. But over recent decades, all the state governments have seen fit to bundle the responsibility for national parks within a large range of disparate portfolio responsibilities to one government minister.
In Tasmania, national parks responsibility falls under the responsibility of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment – tagged on at the end. The current minister responsible is Brian Wightman MP, who is also Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage (a different department name) and simultaneously Minister for Justice. How much time and energy can Wightman dedicate to national parks in his working week?
In New South Wales, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is part of the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), within the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet. The delegated minister is Robyn Parker MP who is the Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Heritage. These functions are relatively compatible, yet only a few years prior under the previous government, NPWS came under the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, and the various ministers responsible for varying short stints, also had other unrelated yet demanding portfolios such Commerce and Health.
In Queensland, Steven Dickson MP is responsible for National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing. In Victoria, Parks Victoria is lumped in with the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Catchment Management Authorities, Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, Environment Protection Authority Victoria, Landcare Victoria, Sustainability Victoria and Zoos Victoria, which all report to Ryan Smith MP is Minister for Environment and Climate Change as well as being Minister for Youth Affairs. How many minutes does Smith give Parks Victoria in a given week?
The extreme bundling of so many responsibilities with the national parks function, effectively belittles its role.
The dilution of the national parks role is compounded by the trend of the short term assignment of a given minister to the portfolio, even within the one term of government, let alone when governments change hands. And where is the ultimate guardian for Australia’s national parks in all this – wiping its hands of responsibility and accountability for Australia’s most precious ecological assets.
Further, one can think of no minister for the environment who has ever had formal training or qualifications in environmental scence, or having been a National Parks ranger. The ultimate responsibilities for environment are delegated to politicians with little or no understanding of managing the natural environment, with all its complexities. In New South Wales the current Minister for Environment and Heritage is qualified in child day care.
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World Heritage managed at State Level
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State delegation of national parks even applies to national parks in Australia that have been listed as World Heritage Areas, like the Blue Mountains National Park, Fraser Island National Park, Great Barrier Reef National Park, Kakadu National Park, and Tasmanian Wilderness. While the Australian Government has an international obligation to protect and conserve World Heritage properties, those World Heritage properties do not become Australian Commonwealth property. State and local laws still apply. The only protection afforded to World Heritage properties is that land uses must not threaten any of the outstanding universal values of the property.
World Heritage listed properties in Australia are supposed to be managed by the Australian Government under obligations that the Australian Government signs up to under the World Heritage Convention for each listed property.
The management objectives for World Heritage properties are part of Australia’s general obligations under the World Heritage Convention, which primarily includes protecting and conserving the World Heritage values of the given World Heritage property. However, the Australian Government chooses to achieve this objective by what it describes as “recognising the role of current management agencies in the protection of a property’s values” (that is by government agencies in their respective States), but also delegating custodial responsibility to the local community “in the planning and management of a World Heritage property.
In doing so, the Australian Government wipes its hands of its signed up custodial responsibility to protect and conserve Australia’s World Heritage listed properties. This is most evident with the Queensland Government currently allowing dredging in Gladstone Harbour within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage. It is also most evident with the Tasmanian Government allowing clearfell logging adjacent to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage.
The Australian Government is also liberal with its interpretation of protecting and conserving World Heritage values by what it describes as “allowing provision for use of the property which does not have a significant impact on the World Heritage values and their integrity.”
[Source: ‘Management of Australia’s world heritage listed places’, Australian Government, Department of Environment etc (currently called the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Community, ^http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/about/world/managing.html]
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‘We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life’s continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to it, but here we are.’
~ Steven Jay Gould, paleontologist .
Industrialisation of the Great Barrier Reef
The dredging in Gladstone Harbour for the seam gas has been blamed by local environmentalists for the area’s poor water quality
and a skin disease affecting marine life. Green activists say dredging has adversely affected whales and dugongs in the area.
[Source: Queensland slams UNESCO, defends gas on the barrier reef
Posted on June 5, 2012, ^http://rowenadelarosayoon.wordpress.com/2012/06/]
Agree term ‘National Parks’is a misnomer, as ‘protection’requires acknowledging and adequately addressing all the threats.
The NSW NPWS can’t do that, I expect irrespective of funding, because it would be an admission they have failed to maintain and improve the reserve system.
In that regard, note unsupportable claim “Unlike the declaration of a ‘National Park’ which affords federal environmental protection to forest habitat, the State label of a ‘State Forest’ is a misnomer.” in ‘Tigerquoll’ article.
However, there are exceptions and if exploited the conditions of the Biodiversity fund may offer the last south coast koalas some additional federal protection in NPs and SFs.
How very true and alarming! The dilutions of the protections and management of National Parks and World Heritage areas detailed in this article, is unfortunately the symptom of the implementation into practice of our society’s delusion about the reality of our planet earth and of our place within and interdependence with its natural environment and its ecosystem services.
This delusion, which is so strongly protected by those with vested interest in its perpetuation, is already responsible for the current unprecedented biodiversity crisis we find ourselves in. How bad this needs to become before we wake up and change our priorities? (See for example David Suzuki’s book “The Legacy, An Elder’s Vision for our Sustainable Future”)
[The following article was written by Tigerquoll and initially published under the title ‘Anthology of State Serial Rape of Bermagui’s Spotted Gum Forest Habitat‘, on ^CanDoBetter.net 20100216]
Click this image to play music then click back to this article as it plays
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Nothing less than the Australian Government can be trusted to protect vital Koala Habitat.Lesser smaller-minded state governments only see Koala Habitat as a logging and tourism resource.Small minded politicians like Kristina Keneally can never be trusted with national treasures
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Bermagui’s Spotted Gums..the local Narooma Community in their defence against ‘Forest NSW’ (the Forest-Fiddling loggers)
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Forest-Fiddling Logger driving his Spotted Gum spoils truck
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But Eucalyptus maculata is a tree, not a floor
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In terms of Australia’s iconic ‘Spotted Gum’, the word “spotted” refers to the soft mottled colour caused by weathering of the outer tree as it sheds elliptical strips of bark.
Spotted Gum bark
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This colour varies from pale greybrowns and soft creams to a rich chocolate brown. A very tough timber, its frequent wavy grain can produce an attractive and highly valued fiddleback effect. [Source: Boral website, ^http://www.boral.com.au/timberflooring/timber_species_-_spotted_gum.asp]
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Build something great, but don’t destroy something great in the process – like Koala Spotted Gum Forests!
Invest in Boral and you invest in Koala extinction
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About 380km south of Sydney lies what NSW Tourism labels the beautiful ‘Sapphire Coast’ with the popular seaside town of Bermagui.
Less than 3km north of Bermagui heading north along Bermagui-Cobargo Road and up the Bermagui River estuary is the Bermagui State Forest – a label by the NSW Department of Primary Industry (DPI) given to magnificent Spotted Gum forest.
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This forest is vital habitat for threatened native fauna – the Yellow Bellied Gliders, Grey-Headed Flying Foxes, Tiger Quolls, Sooty Owls, Sea Eagles, Possums and Australia’s iconic Koala.
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Koala in Bermagui’s Spotted Gum forest – a displaced landlord
Australia’s magnificent and unique Spotted Gums are naturally distributed in open forests along the hilly coastal corridor from south-east Queensland down through New South Wales and with a few isolated pockets in East Gippsland, Victoria. They belong to the botanical family ‘Myrtaceae’ and grow straight and tall up to 40 metres. Their height attracts roosting by Sea Eagles.
Note the planet’s sole natural distribution of Spotted Gum ForestsThey have become the target of corporate development simply because Spotted Gums prefer a mild temperate climate near the coast..like Australia’s millions of breeding humans, and profiteering corporate developers
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Spotted gums flower once every two years and produce a rich pollen that attracts native birds such as Lorikeets and Yellow Tailed Cockatoos as wells as possums and flying foxes including the IUCN vulnerable listed Grey-Headed Flying Fox. [Source: Australian Native Plants Society, Corymbia maculata, ^http://asgap.org.au/c-mac.html]
Grey-Headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)
The grey-headed flying-fox is listed as vulnerable to extinction under NSW and Australian legislation because of declining numbers and key threats such as habitat loss and urban conflict. Records indicate that grey-headed flying-foxes may once have numbered in the millions, but are now reduced to as few as 400,000. In the decade before listing, their population was estimated to have declined by 30%.
(Photo by Ákos Lumnitzer, ^http://amatteroflight.com/)
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Unlike the declaration of a ‘National Park’ which affords federal environmental protection to forest habitat, the State label of a ‘State Forest’ is a misnomer. A ‘State Forest’ is deemed a timber and woodchip resource for logging. The same public relations label is used across New South Wales, ACT, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland. A State Forest is not treated as a forest for its natural habitat values, but rather as a logging coup on death row, that can be chainsawed at will anytime. Perhaps ‘Death Row Forest’ is a more apt label than speaking the State euphemism of ‘State Forests’.
And its public relations label logging as ‘harvesting’, a euphemism to belie the destructive reality.
Bermagui State Forest after the loggers
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The NSW Logging Offensive of 1988
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On the back of a century of clear felling Bermagui State Forest was logged in the late 1980s. Then according to data from the ‘Bureau of Resource Science‘ (aka science graduates on the payroll of loggers), 148ha were “thinned” in 1996, and another 133ha that same year, then 94ha in 1999.
Typically 70% of the spotted gums goes to Boral’s mills in Narooma, Nowra and Batemans Bay as sawlogs to be processed into mainly flooring. The remainder end up as woodchips at Nippon Paper’s woodchip mill at Twofold Bay for export to Japan.
So Australia’s precious endangered habitat is being destroyed for house flooring and office paper. .
This RFA is one of three established in 1999, in which the NSW Government relegated 15.1 million hectares of native forests across New South Wales for logging anytime. The usual public relations spin preceded the logging. Southern Region manager of Forests NSW, Ian Barnes.
It was at this time that Labor’s Minister for Primary Industries (Forests NSW) Ian MacDonald and Labor’s Minister for Police Tony Kelly started to use Dick Cheney tactics to push their weight around with protesters. The following questions to the NSW Legislative Council by NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon on 28th October 2008, highlight the escalated use of law enforcement into a heavy handed riot squad:
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Lee Rhiannon MLC:
“I direct my question to the Minister for Police. Did officers stationed at Batemans Bay police station in collaboration with Forests New South Wales hold a meeting at the Bermagui Country Club in September to warn locals associated with calling for forest protection not to protest when logging commenced in the Bermagui State Forest? Does the holding of this meeting reflect that Batemans Bay police officers have adopted a zero tolerance policing approach to forest protesters? Considering that since logging started in Bermagui State Forest on 27 October with a group of about 40 protesters gathered in the vicinity, about 15 police cars, more than 20 police, including members of the Public Order and Riot Squad, a mobile police command bus and two police rescue vans have been in attendance, will this level of policing continue for the coming six weeks of logging in this area? What is the anticipated cost of this operation?
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Tony Kelly MLC (response):
“The Far South Coast Local Area Command of the New South Wales Police Force has been advised that New South Wales Forests is to commence logging compartments of Bermagui State Forest later this month. As in the past, protests are expected. As always, the New South Wales Police Force is committed to maintaining public order. For this reason, local police and various commands, including the Public Order and Riot Squad, Highway Patrol and Rescue Squad will join together to conduct an operation.
This operation will focus on ensuring the protection of persons engaged in lawful activities. Local police have made it clear that anyone engaging in unlawful or dangerous activity in or near the logging operation will have action taken against them. When offences continue and are considered dangerous, police will arrest and charge people as necessary. Police respect people’s rights to protest during these times; in no way are they looking to prevent lawful and peaceful protests. Police have asked anyone who intends to protest to contact them so that they can attempt to facilitate lawful activity, minimise disruption and focus on protecting the safety of everyone involved.”
On Monday 2nd February 2009, logging operations resumed in the Bermagui State Forest after the summer holiday break period and continued for about two months.
Bruce Mathie and Sons is one of the prominent loggers in the area, but most timber finds its way either as saw logs to Boral for Spotted Gum flooring or else to Nippon Papers woodchip mill at Twofold Bay, Eden for export to Japan.
The forest eco-rapers ‘Forests NSW’ – bulldozed, chainsawed, logged, then left with their booty.
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Kevin Mathie – 4th generation logger
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Logging contractor, Gil Mathie, in the middle of the picture at front (pink jumper)More notably, this editor is saddened by bearing witness to a senior member of the Bermagui community being arrested for conserving Spotted Gums and Koalas.We love, we defend, we act for love. Salute the man being arrested.
[Source: Local environmentalist, John Perkins, Gulaga Protest near Tilba on the NSW South Coast, 20070514]
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Labor’s Ian MacDonald’s Forestry Regulation of 2009
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But rather that do the right thing by the Environment and by the Community and obey the law of the land, those in power The Labor Government’s (Forests NSW) forced changes to the law of the land to bloody well suit themselves. Arguably reminiscent of England’s King Henry VIII changing laws to accommodate his adultery, or Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s gerrymandering that secured his electoral hold on power.
In order to keep the cameras and local conservationist away from the loggers destructive practices, Forests NSW got the Minister to legislate an exclusion area around its logging with the public relations labeling of “mainly for safety reasons”.
On 1 September 2009, the NSW Forestry Regulation 2009 came into force making it illegal for anyone to trespass into areas marked by NSW Forests for logging. This has given Forests NSW absolute logging power with the police as its enforcement lackies.
Forests NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian MacDonald, tabled the Bill and it became law preventing democratic protests by people trying to save important habitat from destruction. It has given loggers free reign to log State Forests with impunity.
Under Part 3, Division 1, Clause 11 of this Regulation, a logger has legal authority to request anyone to leave a forestry area and this includes if that person “causes inconvenience.”
Under Clause 12, a logger can forcible remove anyone from a forestry area “who is causing annoyance or inconvenience.”
Surely such removal by a logger can be construed an assault under the Crimes Act? It is draconian. It is certainly an assault on Australians’ democratic right to protest. What was Ian MacDonald thinking?
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Labor’s Ministers in charge three years hence…
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Labor’s Police Minister Tony Kelly MLC
NSW Minister for Emergency Services, Lands, Police and Primary Industries.
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‘Tony Kelly was targeted by protesters as he arrived to give evidence at the ICAC in June. Today the commission has found the former minister engaged in corrupt conduct.’
‘DISGRACED former state Labor ministers Tony Kelly and Ian Macdonald are demanding taxpayers foot their legal bills and the state government could be forced to hand over up to $250,000. Despite being found by corruption watchdog ICAC to have forged official documents while a minister, Mr Kelly has formally asked the O’Farrell government to cover the cost of his elite legal team.’
Labor’s Logging Minister Ian MacDonald MLC
Forests NSW/ Minister for Primary Industries in 2009
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‘The disgraced former NSW resources minister Ian Macdonald is to face a new corruption inquiry into the granting of coal exploration licences. The Independent Commission Against Corruption said in a statement yesterday that Mr Macdonald is being investigated for allegedly using his ministerial position ”to advantage the private interests of others”.
‘The senior state minister Ian Macdonald signed taxpayers up to the V8 Supercars race without a system to manage potential conflicts of interest, without advice from the government’s major events body and without a proper business case, the NSW Auditor-General finds.’
In September 2009, Forests NSW commenced logging again in Bermagui State Forest, like pack rapists marauding through a maternity ward.
Sure enough, on Monday, 14th September 2009, Police arrested two of four forest campaigners who had allegedly entered Bermagui State Forest in what Forests NSW had labeled logging compartments 2001 and 2002. Apparenpe known to support koalas is unacceptable, particularly when the NSW government cannot prove their claims that koalas can be found anywhere in the south east,” said Robert Bertram, local Friends of Five Forests member.
“This is yet another example of Forests NSW lack of care for community and the environment,” said Lisa Stone, spokesperson for South East Forest Rescue.
“They are logging old-growth in Dampier, threatened species habitat in South Brooman, endangered species habitat in Nadgee and now this.”
“The loss of biodiversity coupled with logging and burning means the condition of many forests is as bad as the endangered ecological communities on private land, unable to support most threatened and endangered species and unable to recover.”
“We urge the newly appointed Minister for the Environment, Mr John Robertson, to step in on behalf of the native forests and their dependents and stop these archaic practices.”
“The current government policy of destroying habitat to satisfy ‘wood supply agreements’ is robbing from the future generations their chance of survival. The amount of breaches was astounding and shows that Forests NSW cannot be trusted to log these important areas of Koala habitat.”
“We have inspected many other logging operations in the past year and have found the same breaches everywhere we have looked. This is pe known to support koalas is unacceptable, particularly when the NSW government cannot prove their claims that koalas can be found anywhere in the south east,” said Robert Bertram, local Friends of Five Forests member.
“This is yet another example of Forests NSW lack of care for community and the environment,” said Lisa Stone, spokesperson for South East Forest Rescue.
A community morally right to defend habitat and prepared to defend that right
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“They are logging old-growth in Dampier, threatened species habitat in South Brooman, endangered species habitat in Nadgee and now this.”
“The loss of biodiversity coupled with logging and burning means the condition of many forests is as bad as the endangered ecological communities on private land, unable to support most threatened and endangered species and unable to recover.”
“We urge the newly appointed Minister for the Environment, Mr John Robertson, to step in on behalf of the native forests and their dependents and stop these archaic practices.”
“The current government policy of destroying habitat to satisfy ‘wood supply agreements’ is robbing from the future generations their chance of survival. The amount of breaches was astounding and shows that Forests NSW cannot be trusted to log these important areas of Koala habitat.”
“We have inspected many other logging operations in the past year and have found the same breaches everywhere we have looked. This is not a once off mistake but a systemic disgust for any environmental protection measures.”
Conservationists state the native forest logging industry is unsustainable and only propped up by political will, public subsidies and union backing.
Spokesperson for the South East Region Conservation Alliance, Pru Acton, says:
“The significant social and economic costs of reduced biodiversity can only increase while our natural systems are poorly managed.”
“Credible experts agree that the cost of logging this habitat is not only the last few koalas, but also potable water supplies, oysters, the inspiration for the local artists community, and another chunk of the Wilderness Coast’s tourism potential.”
“It seems the NSW Government has now decided its contractual obligations to supply sawlogs locally and woodchips to Asia is more important then protecting this much loved native animal.”
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South East Region Conservation Alliance
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Conservationists state the native forest logging industry is unsustainable and only propped up by political will, public subsidies and union backing.
Spokesperson for the South East Region Conservation Alliance, Pru Acton, says: “The significant social and economic costs of reduced biodiversity can only increase while our natural systems are poorly managed.”
“Credible experts agree that the cost of logging this habitat is not only the last few koalas, but also potable water supplies, oysters, the inspiration for the local artists community, and another chunk of the Wilderness Coast’s tourism potential.”
“It seems the NSW Government has now decided its contractual obligations to supply sawlogs locally and woodchips to Asia is more important then protecting this much loved native animal.”
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[Source: ‘Logging resumes at Bermagui’, by Stan Gorton Narooma News, 20090204 – note the Narooma News has removed this news item online. However, the Narooma News has chosen not to remove its following story (Source: ^http://www.naroomanewsonline.com.au/story/191381/albino-possum-causes-log-truck-roll-over-at-narooma/ if it be not similarly removed].
Speeding logging trucker blames possum..Narooma News editor’s reputation shot
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Narooma News spins the following story to appease local logger readership:
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“In a bizarre set of circumstances, a rare but dead albino possum is believed to have caused a log truck roll-over on the Princes Highway just south of Narooma.
The accident occurred just after 1pm when witnesses said a local from Wallaga Lake stopped to look at the road-kill possum that had been lying on the roadside at the entrance to the Island View Beach Resort.
A series of cars backed up behind the stopped vehicle in the southbound lane. Another Narooma local who was last in the line of stopped cars looked in his rear-vision mirror only to see the huge red-coloured truck coming up fast from behind.
“I think I am going to buy a lottery ticket,” said the local, who at one point thought the truck was going to smash into him and end his life.
The truck driver then allegedly swerved onto the wrong side of the road, narrowly missing the line of cars and while he was fortunate not to face any oncoming northbound traffic, he did lose control on the straight stretch of highway.
The truck reportedly clipped a boat trailer, flipped onto its side, sliding down the highway with the prime mover coming to rest in bushland just off the verge north of the Nangudga Bridge.
An ACT couple who among those first on the scene were able to help the truck driver out of the cab but they said he was badly shaken up and was not aware of where he was.
The Pambula man was the only person injured in the accident and was taken to Moruya Hospital for treatment.
The highway was closed down to one lane with firefighters, police and RMS personnel cleaned up and investigated the scene.
Residents from the nearby Island View caravan park were alerted to the accident by a loud bang and they lined the highway watching the accident.
The accident occurred at the start of the June long weekend where NSW police were out in force urging drivers to be careful on the busy roads.
Albino or golden brush-tailed possums are very rare but there is a known population living in the Narooma area.’
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~ by the Narooma News editor…and watch out for drop bears too!
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Meanwhile NSW Forests remains culturally contemptuous to NSW forests
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Forests NSW recruit their students with Communications degrees to lie for it on its website:
“State forests in NSW are managed sustainably to provide a supply of timber today and into the future, to protect the environmental values of the forest and provide community amenities.”
Forests NSW website claims that “Ecologically sustainable forest management (ESFM) is our guiding philosophy. ESFM is about managing forests to maintain ecological principles and biodiversity while optimising the benefits to the community from all uses of the forest…”
Narooma Community in defence of Koala Habitat
– clearly not convinced about Forests NSW spiel about “optimising the benefits to the community”
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Revolving Door politics of NSW Labor
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In the revolving door politics of NSW Labor, Premier #3 Nathan Rees on 16th November 2009 sacked Ian MacDonald from his DPI Ministry.
Rees was himself sacked as premier on 3 December, then a week later, Labor Premier #4 Kristina Keneally (Labor show pony) reappointed Ian MacDonald ‘Minister for State & Regional Development and Minister for Mineral & Forest Resources‘ in December 2009.
The labelling of Minister for ‘Forest Resources’ left NSW State Forests in no doubt about the death row status. Throughout NSW Labor’s factional power shuffle Macca’s chair never got cold.
The then Minister for Primary Industries , Tony Kelly, overseeing Forests NSW, claimed on 18 November 2009: “The NSW Government has a solid track-record for maintaining prosperous and sustainable primary industries, I will be working hard with industry to ensure this tradition continues.”
All State Forests should be added to Australia’a National Park Estate. State Governments and their narrow mindset culture cannot be trusted with ecology. Boral and Nippon Paper can transition their logging operations into plantation-only FSC resources.
The Twofold Bay Woodchip Mill was set up near Eden in 1969 by Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Company has exported and profitted from over 35 million tonnes of Australian native forest woodchips, mostly to Japan, where its parent company is based.
In contributing to the annihilation of thousands of hectares of Australia’s native forest habitat the Daishowa Twofold Bay Woodchip Mill is Australia’s Habitat Auschwitz. It must be unceremoniously closed down immediately.
Daishowa – Japan’s BIG Corporate Eco-Rapist and BIG Koala Exterminator
‘Greens MP David Shoebridge today met with local campaigners and timber workers in the Bermagui State Forest to get a first-hand view of the impact of continued logging in the South East Forests.
“There is a real concern that this logging is further fracturing the remaining stands of koala habitat in the South East,” Mr Shoebridge said.
“The logging is being undertaken in a nature corridor that links Wallaga Lake National Park and Bermagui Nature reserve. This corridor should be protected.
“With the logging at Bermagui coming within a few hundred meters of town the prospects of more intensive and drier regrowth producing higher levels of fire hazard are real.
“Forests NSW has said that the beautiful “cathedral” entrance to Bermagui will be protected. However on closer inquiry only a small part of the western side and a 50m ‘visual protection zone’ to the east is currently protected.
“In discussions with Forests NSW today they have committed to reviewing the decision on the cathedral to consider protecting all of it from logging. This would be a welcome, if modest, concession.
“The South East Forests are a priceless natural asset and this new State government has a real chance to break with the past and save them from continued logging for wood chips.
“Local campaigners are committed to saving these beautiful forests and this will remain a key focus in the coming years,” Mr Shoebridge said.
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[Ed: That was over a year ago – our love and commitment for the old forest – we remember ]
Connected
Snow Gums do not enjoy being burned to death
Captain Michael D. Miller in 1968
[New life amongst so much death]
Thanks for bringing this ecologically unsustainable and inhumane slaughter of whales to our attention. I have so far signed numerous petitions to stop this slaughter in Denmark and Japan with no effect, so I hope that this time the coalition of NGOs will succeed in stopping it.
To me it is unbelievable that children are encouraged to take part in this slaughter thereby perpetuating this cultural maladaptation that is destroying future livability on earth.
The irony is that what we do to animals eventually comes back to us. As top predators we are not immune to pollution and unfortunately we only take action when it starts to affect our health, I suppose Mine Mata was long time ago and we forgot about it.
Make no mistake ..it actually is an addictive sport. No longer a necessity for primitive needs, this has become a modern thrill of enjoying a ritualistic mass slaughtering of huge benevolent beings by chasing, gaffing, and slicing throats among fellow hunters sharing the day long adrenaline rush. The ancient survival practice has been reduced to little more than an exciting, addictive bloodsport evidenced by their refusal to quit though it’s not subsistence and many there disapprove.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLyiJf9G9iA