Calling all FoE supporters! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to influence the way Victoria’s forests are cared for into the future.
Do you love exploring the alpine ash and snow gum forests of North East Victoria? Have you experienced the rainforests and unique diversity of Gippsland? Now is your chance to stand up for the places you love & see these special environments cared for into the future.
On January 1, 2024, native forest logging on public lands in the east of the state of Victoria ended. This is a wonderful win for forests, after decades of hard work by many thousands of people. After a long wait, the state government has now announced the consultation process for making a decision about how these forests should be managed in the future.
The Great Outdoors Taskforce’s are asking the public to fill out a short survey on the future of state forests. The Taskforce will be giving recommendations to the government about forest management mid 2025. This short online survey closes January 12, 2025. Get your responses in before the silly season distractions! The survey takes just 5-10 minutes. You don’t need to be an expert to contribute & your voice is essential to secure good outcomes for forests.
The Taskforce will be giving recommendations to the government about forest management mid 2025. This short online survey closes January 12, 2025. Get your responses in before the silly season distractions! The survey takes just 5-10 minutes. Everyone that cares about forest protection & restoration should contribute. You don’t need to be an expert to contribute & your voice is essential to secure good outcomes for forests.
Note that the area the GOT is consulting about covers the North East and Gippsland region, not the Central Highlands.
DO THE SURVEY
Some key points FoE thinks are important, if you would like a guide:
First Nations governance. We support decentralised decision making that empowers First Nations Cultural knowledge holders, western ecologists, local communities, and environment groups to work together to deliver the best possible care for forested landscapes. There are a number of Aboriginal nations across the North East and Gippsland, some of which don't yet have the same access to legal rights under the current system. It's important that all First Nations can access equitable decision making power, whether or not they currently have a formal representative organisation. We support a cultural landscapes lens, which means a holistic approach to caring for Country that blends Cultural knowledge and western ecological science, land management that is place-specific and seeks to know about and respond to the needs of a particular environment, and holistic care for entire landscapes, regardless of colonial lines on a map.
Biodiversity protection, recovery & repair. Forested landscapes have been over-exploited and ecosystems such as alpine ash are now vulnerable to collapse. It’s time to give, not take. Forests must be legally protected from industry objectives and colonial resource extraction in an enduring way. All future activity, including the visitor economy, must be circular and non-extractive. Management must be holistic and hands-on (think thousands of restoration jobs and community-led landcare). It must provide and protect habitat.
Fund forest restoration. No more under-funding of the reserve system! Successive governments have chronically under-resourced those responsible for caring for forest reserves. Land managers need significant, secure resourcing in order to restore forests and properly deliver holistic programs that can actually give Country what it needs to thrive.
Research, mapping, and monitoring programs (that support both bio-cultural knowledge gathering and ecological science, engaged in two-way knowledge sharing) must be comprehensive and ongoing, so that collaborative decision making can be properly informed (to read more about collaborative management, see pg. 35 of TLaWC's report). The government have committed to an initial VEAC assessment to determine the scientific values of these forested areas, but additional and long-term research and monitoring to understand these ecosystems must be invested in.
Respect and reciprocity, not reckless recreation. The relationship between both locals and visitors & the bush must be one of respect and reciprocity, not reckless recreation driven by entitlement. Regulation to prevent damage in the short-term must be paired with educational experiences to promote ecologically and culturally respectful activity, teach people about the specific environment, and shift the broader community’s relationship to these landscapes in the long-term. People break rules they don’t understand. Tourism and recreation should also funnel a percentage of profit back to collaborative governance structures to fund landcare and restoration in a circular way. Locally accountable funding models, rather than market-based mechanisms like biodiversity offsets, should be explored to fund land management.
Protection from disturbance and climate threats. No mechanical disturbance and active protection from bushfire in ash forests & snow gum woodlands. Management of snow gum dieback. Myrtle wilt programs in rainforest. Fund diverse seedbanks.
FILL OUT THE SURVEY NOW
You can also fill out a map based survey to identify important locations. FoE’s Places to Protect report lists some of the locations we feel are particularly special. Feel free to use this as a guide, but make sure you contribute your own knowledge about the places you know and love.
Note that the area the GOT is consulting about covers the North East and Gippsland region, not the Central Highlands.
