Otway Conservationists prepared to talk to Garbutt if Senior DNRE Bureaucrats removed from Office

Media Release - Wednesday 18th April 2001

Despite Minister Garbutt’s back down on logging the Ciancio coupe today, it is expected the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) with assistance from the police will try again to remove conservationists from the Ciancio coupe in the Otways. In the first two attempts DNRE have charged 18 people for obstructing logging and felled one tree. Conservationists have prevented logging at Ciancio creek since the 6th April (12 DAYS).

Regardless of Minister Garbutt’s response, there are major issues regarding clearfell logging in the Otway Native Forests. Otway Conservationists may consider discussions with the Minister if the Minister agrees in writing to all of the following conditions.

1. Senior DNRE bureaucrats based in Melbourne and Ballarat who were involved in past discussions and agreements with conservationists and who were responsible for putting the West Regional Forest Agreement together must be replaced/sacked.

2. The Minister immediately begins the process of doing an Action Statement (Mandatory requirement of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act) for (a) Myrtle Wilt, (b) Cool Temperate Rainforest, and (c) slender tree fern. These Action Statements are to set out prescriptions for rainforest buffers. The Minister must set a date for the completion of these Action Statements which will be based on science and the process includes a guarantee of public participation.

3. The amount of logging in the Otways must be immediately reduced due to the timber locked up in wider buffers around rainforest. Sawmillers and loggers must receive immediate compensation from the State Government and not be made to log another contentious coupe.

4. All logging in contentious coups to be halted. This includes the Ciancio coupe on Wait-a-While Road.

5. Charges made against conservationists at Ciancio for obstructing logging must be dropped.

“The Minister cannot seriously expect conservationists to meet for negotiations after she and her Department bureaucrats failed to honour past agreements, destroying any chance of trust and goodwill. If the Minister herself is serious about negotiation she must remove those bureaucrats responsible for the breakdown of the previous agreement.” Said spokesperson Simon Birrell for the Otway Ranges Environment Network.

“It is impossible for any dialogue with the Environment Minister when the advice she is getting from DNRE officers regarding rainforest buffers and the impact of logging on water supply catchments ignores scientific research and public expectations.”

“It is a mandatory for the Minister to complete Action Statements under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. However DNRE foresters will not complete Action Statements that require a reduction in logging to protect endangered species. Cool Temperate Rainforest was listed as endangered in 1992 but, nine years later, there is still no Action Statement completed to provide adequate protection for the rainforest from logging.”

“The DNRE bureaucrats who worked on the West RFA never considered Myrtle Wilt and the need for wider buffers around rainforest. The RFA Terms of Reference was written by State and Federal bureaucrats who did not want to consider the management implications set in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act that reduce the amount of logging.”

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