IMAGE: Mt Torbreck - part of the proposed Great Forest National Park. Photo: Justin Cally

Melbourne will soon pass Sydney as Australia’s most populous city. The urban sprawl that is happening to accommodate this growth is putting enormous pressure on transport, public services, and other infrastructure, and making congestion worse.We need big ideas to solve a big - and growing - problem. Here are 3 ideas.

AN ACCESSIBLE CITY

A big part of ensuring our city continues to be livable in coming decades will be the need to build a world class public transport system that is adequate to the needs of a city larger than 5 million people. Infrastructure Victoria has recently warned that, without government intervention, Melbourne will have an extra five hours of peak traffic by 2030.

Check our Get on Board transport plan, available here for our top order priorities for fixing our transport infrastructure.

A COMPACT CITY

Urban sprawl needs to be reined in. We need to ensure there is increased population density around transport corridors, but in a way that meets community needs and expectations, not just the profit imperative of developers.

WORLD CLASS PARKS

This sprawl poses a major threat to remaining open space around the fringes of Melbourne. We are running out of time to protect these landscapes.

In an election year, we need political parties to commit to a world class park system that will protect our city against future sprawl and provide breathing space for the community and protection for key habitats.  

Last year we exposed the Green Building Council of Australia’s (GBCA) dodgy ‘Green star’ ratings. The GBCA award green star ratings for buildings made with timber sourced from unsustainable logging operations in Victoria’s native forests.

Wood certified under the so called 'Responsible Wood' certification scheme (formally Australian Forestry Standard) is being used in so called ‘Green’ buildings that te council has awarded their green tick to. This includes wood from old growth forests, endangered species habitat and critically endangered Mountain Ash forests within the proposed Great Forest National Park

Old growth forest logged in East Gippsland, 2015

As conservationists from the Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) entered their tenth consecutive day of successfully preventing logging of old growth forest at Granite Mountain in remote East Gippsland, twenty government officials have today arrived on site to break the blockade.

Around fifteen people are at the blockade, established on Monday 22 January. One person is suspended from a tripod structure blocking the logging road.

The Rubicon Forest Protection Group has detected logging in a very important area in the Rubicon Valley right next to the Rubicon Valley Historic reserve and on the Royston River.

The natural heritage, ecological values and tourism value of this beautiful place are being decimated.

VicForests is pursuing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for the third time in decade. The internationally recognised certification label regards itself as having strict environmental standards, which specify that logging cannot threaten endangered species, old growth forest and rainforest.

Previous audits of VicForests found a number non conformances to the FSC standards. Today our affiliates GECO joined the auditors in the forest to demonstrate VicForests non conformance to the standard and the impacts of logging on threatened wildlife and old growth forest in East Gippsland.

What a year it has been! 2018 is shaping up as a HUGE year with the Victorian State Election due. Can you help us get get ready for the election and help us show that #VicLovesForests with a donation today?

Northcote Loves Forests! 
Northcote residents overwhelming voted for forest protection by electing Greens candidate Lidia Thorpe. Lidia is the first Aboriginal woman in Victorian parliament and long time advocate for native forest protection.

We congratulate Lidia and look forward to working with her, and we call on Premier Andrews and cabinet Ministers to make declaration of the Great Forest National Park a priority in the coming months. 

Polling commissioned by FoE and other groups revealing that more than 81% of Northcote voters support the creation of the GFNP and for more than 1 in 5 voters the protection of forests is their most important issue, as reported in The Guardian.

You can take action and email the Premier and Cabinet calling for the creation of the Great Forest National Park, the protection of East Gippsland's Emerald Link and fair and just transition for workers. Take action now.

The Northcote by-election is a great opportunity for all candidates to show their support for protecting native forests and wildlife. 

Do you live in Northcote and will be voting in the by-election?

Contact your candidates to tell them you want Victoria's native forests protected from logging.

More than 30 environment, recreation and scientific groups have renewed their call for the creation of the Great Forest National Park, as Labor’s favoured issues of renters rights and cost of housing prove less popular with voters in the upcoming Northcote by-election.

Read coverage in The Guardian here.

As Northcote voters head to the polls this weekend, here’s a wrap up of the Friends of the Earth campaign in the Northcote by-election and where the candidates stand on the issue of native forest logging and the creation of the Great Forest National Park.

The Kuark forest is located in far East Gippsland, Victoria. This magnificent forest is home to rare rainforest and endangered animals. Sections of it are currently on logging schedules and could be cut at any moment. An access track has been cut into the first coupe.

In response, campaigners have set up a camp in the forest to oppose logging. In response, the Victorian government announced it would increase the protection given to old growth forests, but activists are not prepared for any of the coupe to be logged.