A number of AFCA folks will be at the summit. Look out for our stall there.

Book your tickets so you can be part of this year’s Climate Action Summit on April 27th -29 in Sydney. Check out the website for more information and bookings: Climatesummit.org.au

We have a few opportunities to inspire others to join our efforts to protect Australia's forests for climate and nature.  

Tony Abbott, Opposition Leader, visited Goongerah in March 2012.  Some locals said hello and passed on a message that they would like their forests protected and that they were not impressed with his vague policies and statements about climate change.

Tony Abbott "pollie pedalled" through the small town of Goongerah in East Gippsland to support the new Abbott's range for Climate Change and the work of carers in communities. The Sexy Scienticians at the Climate Carers Institute, Goongerah, wanted only Tony's support on this one as "Our climate care fashion wear was inspired by Tony's tiny and prudent budgie smugglers and after all - he is the recognised authority on political fashion!

Tony Rides the Rising Tides

Australian Forest and Climate Alliance
GPO Box 544, Canberra, ACT, 2600

Parliament House, 
Canberra, ACT 2600

OPEN LETTER TO MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

We are writing to you to ask you to act at a critical time for the future of not only Australia’s forests, but also our climate. The native forest logging industry is currently experiencing market driven changes that provide the opportunity to shift Australia’s wood and paper production industry onto a sustainable path, based on plantations. The opportunity to transition the forest industry at this critical time will be lost if new incentives are created that will drive ongoing native forest logging.

The disallowance motion put forward by Mr Oakeshott that would allow native forest wood ‘waste’ burnt for electricity to be eligible for Renewable Energy Certificates under the government’s Renewable Energy Target should not be supported.

Author: Gemma Tillack, January 2012

The Durban Climate Conference failed to create incentives to protect forests and close logging loopholes. 

In December 2011 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties was held in Durban in South Africa. This Climate Conference was the last chance for countries to reach agreement on a global binding climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. It was also an opportunity to deliver real emission reductions by removing loopholes that allow countries to hide the emissions that result from the logging and burning of native forests.

So what happened in Durban and how will it impact Australia’s forests and climate actions?

In Durban a number of outcomes where reached for the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Sector.

Brian Walters talks about the opportunity we have to protect our native forests and the carbon they store, which could reduce Australia's carbon emissions by a further 5%.

Media Release

10th February 2012

The Australian Forests and Climate Alliance (AFCA) today condemned the move by independent Rob Oakeshott, the member for Lyne, to overturn regulations in the Clean Energy legislation that currently disallow the burning of native forest wood for power being recognised as renewable energy.

"Rob Oakeshott’s backflip on ruling out native forest biomass, or dead koala credits, as a form of renewable energy is a bad move for him and a bad move for our native forests, wildlife and climate." said Peter Campbell from the Australian Forests and Climate Alliance.

John Hibberd passed away on Saturday 21 January 2012.  John was an inspiring conservationist and a valued member of AFCA.  He will be missed and we will need to keep working to protect the places he loved for him over the coming years.

• Author: Judith Ajani, Economist, Fenner School at Australian National University
• Date: 22 December 2011
• Source: ANU [link]
• Republished under Creative Commons — attribution, no derivatives.

Australia’s forest conflict gets easier to solve as every day passes. In reality, the conflict will solve itself if the government can just resist reviving the environmentally and economically inferior native forest part of Australia’s “forest” industry. The government must not open native forest wood to the energy market.

Some are proposing that Australia’s forest future lies in burning native timber to produce electricity. Proponents argue this “bio-energy” is a sustainable energy source. But just as Australia’s forest wars seem to be coming to an end, conflict over bio-energy could restart the fight.

Miranda from Still Wild Still Threatened in Tasmania is sitting up high in "The ObserverTree" near Mount Mueller in South West Tasmania.

This "tree sit" is in the middle of a logging coupe that was due to be protected by the conservation agreement (the "Peace Deal") promised through the InterGovernmental Agreement signed by Premier Lara Giddings and Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

However, that conservation agreement has not been implemented and right now Forestry Tasmania are claiming that at least 34 coupes will be logged within that 430,000 hectares ear-marked for future protection.

The remarkable forests at Sylvia Creek near Toolangi in Victoria survived the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, but they are now being destroyed by VicForests.  Leadbeaters Possum, Victoria's endangered state faunal emblem, lives in these so its habitat is being destroyed.

Local protested for months while VicForests commenced logging operations in the forest, with many days of direct action including tree sits slowing the logging.

Local group MyEnvironment eventually succeeded in halting the logging by taking out an injunction against VicForests on the basis that they were yet again not complying with the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.  The judge supported and extended the injunction at the first hearing.  The logging is scheduled to continue early in 2012.

Late in 2012, the Baillieu government announced plans to amend the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act so that government officers would have the discretion to allow logging to continue in areas were threatened species were found.  This meand that buearcrats will be albe to sign the death knell of native forests and threatened species. Effectively, this means threatened species will no longer be protected by the act.