By Stephen Robson
PERTH — WA's forest blockade began here on July 2 with several hundred people attending a two-day festival near Pemberton, about 400 km south of here.
The festival included talks and workshops on forest-related issues and a demonstration of the skills required to participate in the blockade. Many spent their time planning tactics and painting colourful banners.
The event was also designed to celebrate the beauty of the forests, something it achieved with the participation of many Perth-based and local musicians.
On the eve of the blockade, the Forest Industry Federation of Western Australia (FIFWA) announced a two- or three-week moratorium on logging operations in the four areas the Western Australian Forest Alliance (WAFA) intends to blockade.
WAFA coordinator Peter Robertson welcomed the announcement on July 1, but indicated that the festival and blockade would go ahead as planned.
Robertson explained that the main aim of the campaign was to push for a moratorium on road building and logging in all old growth forests of high conservation value. With the exception of Tasmania, this had been agreed to by the states and federal government as part of the 1992 National Forest Policy.
Robertson said the blockade in the state's south-west forests would continue for four weeks or "until an official state and federal government moratorium" on logging.
WAFA will use its widespread local support base to "meet with and negotiate with, and hopefully reach agreements with local communities and workers in the industry, which will allow for a long-term, sustainable timber industry", Robertson said.
The timber industry, he said, should primarily be based on "plantations of tree crops as well as conserving the remainder of our high value old growth forests".
WAFA has released a letter from state environment minister Kevin Minson which states that there would be no job losses if Hawke block (one of the old growth areas) were to be protected from logging.
WAFA believes other sites could also be protected without job losses.
Those supporting the timber industry employers and the state government are also mobilising. On July 1, the Forest Protection Society organised a rally in Pemberton attended by 2000-3000 people. Paul Omedei, local MP and former minister for local government in the Court Labor government, addressed the rally.
Over the last six years, jobs in Pemberton have dropped from 600 to 100. However, this cannot be blamed on environmentalists, as the employer propaganda attempts to do. The real cause is the introduction of new technologies and the smaller forestry industries going out of business.
WAFA has been attempting to establish a dialogue with the Forest Protection Society, but as yet has been unsuccessful.