Forest summit warns of new threats

Issue 

Forest summit warns of new threats

By Jim Green

Fifty representatives from forest conservation groups around Australia concluded the 15th national forest summit in Victoria's East Gippsland on November 9.

The summit warned that forests face greater threats than ever before: the "global trade in logging" agreement, to be discussed at the World Trade Organisation meeting in late November; government and industry moves to burn native forests for power generation and charcoal production; planned federal legislation to enshrine the widely discredited regional forest agreements; and the massive and increasing taxpayer-funded subsidies to the native forest logging and woodchip industries.

The summit rejected the use of native forests for power generation. It urged the federal Labor Party to uphold and strengthen its amendments to the controversial regional forest agreement bill, and called for a national inquiry into the welfare granted to the logging industry.

Jill Redwood, spokesperson for the summit, said, "The forest crisis in Australia is escalating, and in fact, Queensland's rate of forest clearing is greater than that of the Amazon at its height".

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