Western Australia will end commercial logging in its old growth and native forests from the beginning of next year, according to a government plan released Friday.
The state’s forests are home to trees endemic to areas such as Karri, Jarrah, and Wandoo, and the new plan will protect over 400,000 hectares. The areas will be converted to nature reserves, national parks, and conservation parks.
Officials developed the Forest Management Plan “through extensive consultation, assessment and analysis by the Conservation and Parks Commission, which received more than 3,500 submissions when it released the draft plan for public comment”, a ministerial statement said.
Some 3,000 hectares near state capital Perth have already been identified for an upgrade.
“The Cook government’s new forest management plan marks a major historical moment for Western Australia’s natural environment,” Environment Minister Reece Whitby said.
“It will support a range of actions to promote greater resilience in south-west native forests, as well as support conservation, protect cultural values, and boost tourism.”
Clearing of native forest has run rampant across Australia in recent years, and has been identified as a major source of biodiversity loss as well as carbon emissions.
Roger Cook took over from two-term premier Mark McGowan earlier this year, who resigned to spend more time with family.
Both men have been clear on climate and emissions’ targets while also throwing their weight behind strong support of the state’s vast LNG industry, which makes up two-thirds of Australia’s exports of the commodity. Cook recently said increasing WA emissions would help offset global emissions as nations substituted the supercooled gas for coal, an argument that has been around for over a decade.
In November, the state government caught heat for burning endangered peat swamps that had been identified for protection by federal regulators.
The prescribed burn in the Great Southern region occurred just several weeks after the swamps were put onto the endangered list, spanning 3,500 hectares. According to ABC News, site checks by the Denmark Environment Centre found it was still smouldering two weeks later.
Prescribed burnings occur in forests, peat swamps, and grassland across Australia to prevent bushfires, although they can also be regenerative and often rely heavily on Traditional Owner practices and knowledge.
Earlier this week the Conservation Council of Western Australia expressed concern at an overhaul of the state’s Environmental Protection Agency.
“These concerning changes would undermine the integrity of the environmental assessment process and the independence of the EPA, including through fast-tracking industrial projects, enabling the minister to impose the government’s priorities and policies on the EPA, and removing the crucial oversight of the quality of EPA assessments through the appeals process,” it said in a statement Tuesday.
“The rapid review that’s been undertaken has missed the crucial context, which is that largely unrestricted mining, industrialisation, and land clearing, along with increasing greenhouse pollution, is already threatening to drive many of WA’s unique plants and animals further into the extinction abyss.”
The government was responding to 39 recommendations made that did not, the CCWA said, involve consultation from environmental groups.
In 2019, the EPA recommended that all new projects must stick to a zero-emissions footprint from start up.
The outcry from the energy and resources sector, and LNG export companies such as Woodside Energy, was so swift and severe that then-premier Mark McGowan withdrew it almost immediately.
By Helen Clark – helen@carbon-pulse.com
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