Biodiversity: The key issue for Tasmanian forests
11 Aug 2004
WWF-Australia welcomed the addition of the The Wilderness Society and the Australian Conservation Foundation's forest policy document 'Protecting Forests, Growing Jobs' into the Tasmanian forest debate.
While it will take us a while to get the document properly reviewed, it is a positive sign that the document deals with some key WWF concerns including;
- The most important threat to biodiversity in Tasmania - landclearing
- The need to expand the reserve agenda to protect biodiversity,
- Identification of some common ground on the exact areas of public forest that need to be reserved,
- The need for changes to forest practices.
WWF is concerned the proposal does not fully address biodiversity issues in Tasmania for example non-forest native vegetation like grasslands and wetlands.
The bulk of the report is an economic analysis of the cost of stopping old-growth forest logging. In essence, the report proposes transferring significant job losses in the forest sector to other sectors, like tourism, through a substantial injection of funds.
WWF said: "Such proposals had often been put by conservation groups in the past - it is not clear why these proposals would now be economically feasible or acceptable to the Tasmanian government or community."
WWF said it was pleased the release of its Blueprint document 2 weeks ago had triggered further analysis and debate on the issues.
The WWF Blueprint document is open for public comment until August 27th and WWF has urged the public to make written submissions on the report before finalising its position on Tasmanian forest issues.
