Conservation movement urged to abandon SW forest blockade

5/7/94

Environment Minister Kevin Minson has called on the conservation movement to abandon its forest blockade in the South-West.

Mr Minson said it was patently ridiculous for the extreme green protesters to complain they had not had the opportunity to participate in forming forest management plans and there had not been independent reviews of forest management practices.

He said native forests in Western Australia had undergone extensive planning reviews in the last six years and these had involved enormous public consultation.

In addition, the 1992 Forest Management Plans had been reviewed by the Environmental Protection Authority and had been the subject of a review of appeals and a scientific administrative panel.

"Forest management in WA has also been investigated by the Resource Assessment Commission and the National Forest Policy was modelled on the WA forest management system," Mr Minson said.

"The green blockade appears to be designed to encourage Federal intervention in forest management in this State.

"I warn the blockaders they will have a long wait before Federal Environment Minister John Faulkner intervenes, because I do not believe he will throw out the agreement between the Department of Conservation and Land Management and the Australian Heritage Commission.

"After all this, agreement was hailed by Mr Faulkner's predecessor, Ros Kelly, as a model for the rest of Australia."

Mr Minson said in the last several years forest conservation reserves had increased by more than 340 per cent so that 46 per cent of the karri forest and 33 per cent of the jarrah forest were excluded from timber production.

He said the very forest blocks the extreme greens were proposing to blockade had been part of the extensive joint study of forest heritage values done by CALM and the Australian Heritage Commission.

It was this study which ensured all heritage values were protected on a regional basis which formed the basis of the Australian Heritage Commission's endorsement of CALM's forest management strategy.

The Commission itself said the old growth and wilderness surveys, identified in the National Forest Policy Statement, had already been done in the Southern Forest Region.

The Commission had advised that any new survey work would not achieve a sufficiently different outcome to warrant a new assessment.

"Contrary to what the greens say, WA's Forest management plans are totally in sympathy with the national forest policy," Mr Minson said.

"The Government is not going to cave in to a small group of extreme conservationists whose obsession about forests has little to do with concern for the environment and much to do with political ideology.

"The conservation movement should redirect its attention to the major environmental issues which are the devastating effect of feral animals, such as the fox, on native fauna and the catastrophic impact of salination."

Media contact:  Diana Callander 321 2222 or 222 9595