Pic courtesy Twitter.
WA’S forests minister has rejected an offer of $90,000 from conservationists to “buy back” a Margaret River forest where logging is underway. Source: Perth Now (pic courtesy Twitter)
Protesters including celebrities Ben Elton, Ian Parmenter and John Butler travelled to Parliament House in a last-ditch bid to save Mowen Forest, offering the WA Government $90,000 – the same amount they expect the Government’s Forest Products Commission to make in profit from the logging.
But Forestry Minister Mia Davies said the Government “has received an offer to buy the Mowen harvest coupes which it will not be accepting”.
She said the forestry industry is an “important part of the fabric of the South-West region” and many local communities rely on the employment and opportunities it creates.
She said harvesting of forest areas, like Mowen, employs people in harvesting, processing and manufacturing sectors and has flow on benefits to the wider communities “including kids in schools, increased participation in community groups and sporting clubs and income being spent in local economies”.
Ms Davies said old-growth forest, which does not include the Mowen coup, continues to be protected and is not available for timber harvesting.
She said the Government “remains committed to the forestry industry”, forests in the South-West are among the best managed forests in the world, and timber harvest operations are undertaken in accordance with strict criteria to help ensure all forest values are protected.
Under the Forest Management Plan, approximately 62% of South-West forests are set aside for conservation and other purposes. Currently less than 1% of the total area is harvested each year.
More than 330,000 hectares of old-growth forest is protected in existing or proposed formal reserves, and informal reserves.
Margaret River celebrity author Ben Elton has joined the campaign to save the forest, saying: “The glories of Western Australia’s natural environment are priceless. If we continue to squander them in this insane and unsustainable manner we will be shamed in the eyes of every generation that follows us and rightly so.”
Local celebrity chef Ian Parmenter said: “While Colin Barnett has been patting himself and his government on the back over the popular success of the Giants in Perth, he should take some time to celebrate and respect our native giants: the trees in our forests which he is so intent on destroying. The gentle giants deserve to be preserved.”
The Augusta-Margaret River Shire Council has backed a 1600-strong petition against the logging.
Save Mowen Forest spokeswoman Naomi Godden said the $90,000 offer came after a series of community rallies and non-violent direct action to delay the logging.
Jess Beckerling, convener of the WA Forest Alliance, called on the WA Government to “honour the wishes of the Margaret River and broader community, and accept this offer in exchange for a Memorandum of Understanding that ensures Mowen forest will not be logged in 2015 or into the future”.
Mowen Forest, located between Margaret River and Nannup, contains native forest and habitat for endangered cockatoos. The Forest Products Commission has repeatedly said logging is carried out selectively and trees with hollows for cockatoos are left standing, while the industry is sustainable and important for jobs.
Greens MP Lynn MacLaren said the Barnett Government has no logical option but to accept the community’s offer to save Mowen Forest by giving the Government money equal to the profit the Government would make by logging it.
