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Peace in Tasmania’s forests?

By Mark Poynter - posted Thursday, 17 June 2010


To work, this new “forestry roundtable” will require commitment and a willingness to compromise from both the industry and its opponents. However, while the Salamanca Agreement, the National Forest Policy Statement and the Regional Forest Agreement show that the forestry sector has a history of compromise. On the other hand, their “green” opponents are typified by an unwillingness to compromise, and are already showing signs of disquiet at suggestions that they may have to accept outcomes that fall well short of their “wish lists”.

For example, speculation that aspects of native forest timber production could be traded away in return for “green” support for finally building the pulp mill, has been met with outrage at the Tasmanian Times by those engaged in what they regard as an almost biblical struggle to stop the mill going ahead.

The proposed “roundtable” has already been blighted by problems with a map put together by the Greens, the Wilderness Society, and other environmental groups as the starting point for negotiations. While it purported to show 580,000 hectares of “high conservation value” state forest requiring reservation, this was found to include 45,000 hectares of regrowth from logging conducted within the past 30 years, as well as 12,000 hectares of plantation, and a highly disturbed 23,000 hectare military training area.

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Aside from this, there is uncertainty about who will be represented on the “roundtable” and how it will proceed. If it does proceed, it may well be problematic for Tasmania’s elected Greens politicians. They have shown a determination to broaden their interests beyond forestry. Unfortunately for them, a majority of their supporter base is hooked on this issue and regards elements of it as non-negotiable. They expect their elected representatives to deliver fully on these elements. If they don’t or can’t, due to the realities of compromise, these politicians need only look to the savage disrespect now ritually afforded to Peter Garrett as a pointer to what lies in store for them at the hands of what could soon be their former supporters.

Tasmania’s forestry sector is understandably cautious about whether the “roundtable” will do much to moderate the sentiment arraigned against it. History, including events in other states, has repeatedly shown that - short of virtually total capitulation - no amount of compromise by the forestry sector will stop environmental activists from shifting the goalposts to resume the conflict. A continuation of conflict is even more likely in this instance given the already intractable opposition to the pulp mill, the new hatred being directed at plantations, and the emerging issue of prescribed burning.

Nevertheless, Forestry Tasmania has welcomed the “roundtable” talks as “an opportunity for real dialogue” and have expressed hope that it “will help us find ways to create the best possible balance for the future of Tasmania”. However, for it to effectively do this, the “roundtable” must be conducted under a backdrop of pragmatic acceptance that what is right does not necessarily equate to a public hysteria that has largely been manufactured in the absence of perspective and the full suite of the facts.

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About the Author

Mark Poynter is a professional forester with 40 years experience. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Foresters of Australia and his book Going Green: Forests, fire, and a flawed conservation culture, was published by Connor Court in July 2018.

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