Please sign our letter to the new Victorian Environment Minister, calling on her to urgently protect native forests by ending all logging on public lands in the state.
The Andrews government has committed to ending native forest logging by 2030.
While the promise to transition native forests fully into plantations and other sources of timber is good news, the end date is not acceptable. Decades of over logging and repeat bushfires have devastated huge sections of the forests currently available for logging. The impacts of continuing logging are unacceptable. We need to end native forest logging immediately.
In the 21st century it makes no sense to be logging native forests largely for low grade timber and pulp. It is well past time for the full transition from native forests into plantations, agro and eco forestry, and agricultural sources of fibre for pulp and paper.
Affected workers and communities must be supported in the transition. There will be lots of work in land management, agro forestry, plantations and emergency response.