National Forest Uprising Protest in Wauchope : BEC

Bellingen Environment Centre

Today in Australia there is a national forest uprising – people are coming together throughout the country in forests , outside forestry offices  and in the Forest  Embassy outside Federal Parliament in Canberra to protest at the destruction of our native forests .

On the North Coast hundreds of people are also gathering outside the forestry offices in Coffs Harbour and Wauchope and perhaps more importantly,  in two state forests locations on the North Coast .
   

            

It is the third time in four years environmentalists have protested outside the Forestry Corporation office in Coffs Harbour 

Our consistent message during these protests has been that the Forestry Corporation- has lost its social licence to manage our forests said a BEC spokesperson. 

And the result unfortunately, has been that the Forestry Corporation have increased the level of  destruction of our precious native forests on the North Coast  in three ways; 

Eucalypt Forests – the Corporation are now clear felling 140,000 ha of the most diverse tall eucalypt forests on the planet amongst those  that were recommended for World Heritage assessment by a national panel of experts 20 years ago.

Old Growth Forests – the corporation are planning to log thousands of hectares of oldgrowth forests that were identified by a national forest and timber inquiry   as irreplaceable and all recommended for protection 30 years ago.

Rainforests-the Corporation  are planning to log thousands of hectares of rainforest which was identified for protection in the national rainforest conservation program almost 40 years ago.

All this is happening when there is more and more evidence the forest Corporation  has lost its social licence to manage our forests, added the BEC, for example,  the most recent evidence comes from the industry’s own recently conducted studies, which said that native forest logging in the regions , like the North Coast,  is opposed by 70% of the local population.

Today environmentalists have rebranded the Forest Corporation Office in Gordon Street Coffs Harbour as the National Centre for Koala Conservation.

In doing so we are freeing the staff from the onerous, unsociable, uneconomical and environmental devastating  tasks of converting  the most diverse tall eucalypt forests in the World into mechanized tree farms for biomass, based on short rotations of  tiny logs of predominantly a single species,  added the BEC .

The supporters of the Great Koala National Park believe in a just transition for forest workers and that the park will create hundreds more jobs than exist in the current declining hardwood  forest industry.

Ashley Love for Bellingen Environment Centre

13 February 2019, interviews onsite from 9.30 am, protest commencing at 10am.