Failed 'No native forest logging (woodchipping)' campaigns.
1990 - 2010.

The following is not asking anyone to support or reject the No Native Forest Logging (NNFL) campaign strategy. What is written is simply to empower people to make informed choice.

Background

Clearfell logging and export woodchipping became established across Southern Australian by the early 1970's (export woodchipping delayed in Victoria until 1990). see more.

It was not until the mid 1980's that environment groups began to successfully influence the political process enough to start protecting forests from woodchip driven logging. Many significant forest areas were protected during this time. see more.

A key characteristic of the campaign success of the 1980's was a mutual working relationship between either State or Federal ALP Governments and environment or community groups wanting to preserve forests. Trade-offs were involved where conservation groups worked to protect the most important forest areas in return for allowing clearfell logging to continue in other less contentious locations. Conservation groups that were part of the East Gippsland Coalition(Victoria) and Helsham Inquiry(Tasmania) achieved fantastic outcomes for the forests.

Many failed forest campaigns since 1990.

In the early 1990’s, a strategy began to evolved where the compromise and strategic trade-offs to protect forests from clearfell logging were abandoned by most of the major environment groups. These environment groups such as:

• The Wilderness Society,
• Austarlian Conservation Foundatation,
• Environment Victoria(Former Conservation Council of Victoria)
• Victorian National Parks Association.

Instead a campaign ideology based on no native forest logging (NNFL) began to develop with an objective to totally end all native forest logging in Australia. See more.

These conservation groups have expended a huge amount of money, resources and community good-will on many State and Federal no native forest logging campaigns that have failed and in some cases, been a total disaster.

However many incremental gains occurred along the way largely due to the efforts of community groups and forest activists working largely independent of the major conservation groups.[refs]

Key examples of failed forest campaigns where very significant (scarce) resources were committed by major conservatoin groups include:

1. Failed Salamanca Agreement 1990. (Contributed to the development of the no native forest logging ideology.) See Salamanca agreement.
   
   
2. Failure in Victoria by State conservation groups (East Gippsland Coalition) to stop export woodchipping being introduced in 1990. (Contributed to the development of the no native forest logging ideology.)[Link to failed EGC woodchip campaing]
   
   
3. Failed “Woodchip Free by 93” campaign, 1993 Federal Election.
   
   
4. Failed 1996 Federals election campaign where The Wilderness Society put enormous pressure on Prime Minister Paul Keating to ban export woodchips. This campaign backfired as it helped install John Howard as Prime Minister who immediately increased the levels of woodchipping. Howard ran a strong pro-logging and woodchipping agenda for the next 11 years. See more.
   
   
5. Failed 2002 Victorian State election campaign. TWS and the ACF were offered a deal by Premier Steve Brakes to protect old growth forests in East Gippsland. This was rejected by the Wilderness Socient and Australian Conservation Foundation on the grounds it was not a definition of old growth that would have massively expanded areas to be protected. Instead there was no East Gippsalnd outcome. However Bracks was elected in 2002 with polices to stop logging in the Otways and woodchipping thoughout Western Victoria. See more.
   
   
6. Failed 2004 Federal election, where ALP Federal policy to protect 270,000 ha in Tasmania was not embraced by TWS and the ACF due to the influenced of their no native forest logging policies. Instead the NNFL camapign again helped the cunning John Howard get re-elected. [links]
   
   
7. Failed 2006 Victorian Forest Alliance State election campaign lead by The Wilderness Society and the ACF. The Victorian Forest Alliance demanded almost 1 million ha of Victoria forest to be immediately protected. Instead Premier Steve Bracks announced he would protect some contentious forests in East Gippsland. This included Goolengook, Dingo Creek and other icon forest areas, where hundreds of people had been arrested at forest protests in the 1997 and 2002. All up, 45,000 ha has now been added to National Parks, the first significant win for almost 20 years in East Gippsland. [link VRN website pages]

Interesting the proponents of NNFL have all acknowledge that the 1990's was a black spot and not the same as the golden age of the 1980's were when many large conservation outcomes occurred.

Find out about what went wrong.

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