NEFA peace plan launched

NEFA peace plan launched

By Pip Hinman

SYDNEY — A proposal to resolve the decade-long forest dispute in north-east NSW was launched by the North East Forest Alliance on August 25. The proposal meets with the obligations of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Environment and the National Forest Policy Statement.

NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh has proposed to the Fahey government that a funded steering committee be established to look at finding a solution. It would be composed of representatives from federal and state government agencies, conservation groups, the local Koori community and the timber industry.

According to Pugh, the steering committee should collate natural resource data, establish limits on logging outside the reserve system, compile an inventory of available timber resources and consult with the local community about the allocation of those resources to industry.

"It is well past time that a process is adopted that is based on a full and proper scientific assessment of all interest groups' concerns. The Greiner and Fahey governments have signed agreements to resolve forestry disputes and establish a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system but have utterly failed to implement them", Pugh said.

NEFA has criticised the Forestry Commission's environmental impact assessment process for failing to undertake adequate assessments. It charges that the commission is "setting the stage for decades of ongoing costly disputes and the loss of priceless old growth forests".

Pugh said that the former minister for forests, Garry West, had reneged on his promise to establish a balanced committee to work out a solution. NEFA's proposal, he hopes, will be acceptable to the Fahey government and lead to a settlement.

From GLW issue 114