No New WA RFA

Don’t let the Premier renew an outdated, destructive and failed Regional Forest Agreement

Right now the WA government is considering whether to renew the disastrous Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) with the Commonwealth.

The WA Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) signed 20 years ago by Prime Minister John Howard and Premier Richard Court exempted the WA logging industry from Federal environmental laws. It has been a disaster—for our forests and wildlife, for our climate and water catchments, for regional communities and sustainable industries.

At the same time, another key government decision is being made over the allocation of large new ...

Don’t let the Premier renew an outdated, destructive and failed Regional Forest Agreement

Right now the WA government is considering whether to renew the disastrous Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) with the Commonwealth.

The WA Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) signed 20 years ago by Prime Minister John Howard and Premier Richard Court exempted the WA logging industry from Federal environmental laws. It has been a disaster—for our forests and wildlife, for our climate and water catchments, for regional communities and sustainable industries.

At the same time, another key government decision is being made over the allocation of large new contracts for native forest logs from WA’s south west forests—this too must be prevented. WA's logging agency, the loss-making Forest Products Commission, will stop at nothing to dispose of our forests to anyone it can find - operating without adequate Ministerial oversight.

As the government prepares to make a crucial decision about our forests, your email to the Premier is vital to help protect our beautiful South West forests. Please sign the petition today!

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Email the Premier

2,867 emails sent

Email Premier McGowan today and tell him to 'Save our forests—no new RFA for WA!'

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Dear Premier,

I strongly agree with your recent statement to Parliament about the importance of WA’s unique natural environment.

It is crucial that your words are matched by deeds and so I urge you to NOT sign a new Regional Forest Agreement for WA and NOT allow the loss-making Forest Products Commission to enter into new contracts for large volumes of karri, jarrah and marri logs from our South West forests.

The WA Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) signed 20 years ago by Prime Minister John Howard and Premier Richard Court exempted the WA logging industry from Federal environmental laws.  It has been a disaster - for our forests and wildlife, for our climate and water catchments, for regional communities and sustainable industries.

The abject failure of the WA RFA is demonstrated by:
·       At least five unique WA forest wildlife species have been up-listed to ‘Endangered’ or ‘Critically endangered’ since the RFA was signed, while dozens more are being driven closer to extinction;[1]
·       195,000 hectares logged since 1999 without proper environmental assessment;[2]
·       50 South West sawmills closed since the RFA was signed;[3]
·       A 70-80% decline in employment in the native forest logging industry since the WA RFA was signed;[4]
·       90% of jarrah log volume continues to end up as low grade products like firewood and charcoal;[5]
·       Financial results for the past five years show a cumulative operating loss of $5.79 million for the Forest Products Commission;[6]
·       Recent industry report showing that more than 60% of regional West Australians oppose logging of native forests.[7]
 
Since 1998 so much has changed but forest management in WA has not kept pace with evolving knowledge on biodiversity, climate, social and industry changes. This was demonstrated during the recent mid-term review of the Forest Management Plan where serious gaps and flaws were apparent in the science underpinning the plan.
 
While we understand that various government agencies would prefer a roll-over of the RFA without a robust assessment, given the reality of climate change and the impacts of current management on wildlife and biodiversity, a business-as-usual approach would be irresponsible and go against strong community sentiment.
 
At a time when climate change is wreaking havoc on all our remaining native ecosystems and when South West communities are increasingly seeing forests as an asset to be protected, it makes no sense to allow the government logging agency, the FPC, to try to create a new market for native forest logs just to prop up its disastrous finances.

Premier, please do not renew or extend the failed WA RFA and please intervene to prevent the FPC from selling off our native forests to any company that is willing to take them.

Please see references:
[1] Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – Threatened species listings and recovery plans. (2019)
[2] DBCA Annual Reports, 1998-2018; State of the Forests report (Commonwealth, 2018).
[3] Pers comm, Minister Hon. Dave Kelly, 2018.
[4] WA Comprehensive Regional Assessment (1998); Schirmer, J., et al, (2017).
[5] Forest Products Commission annual reports, 2002-18.
[6] Forest Products Commission annual reports, 2013-2018.
[7] Community perceptions of Australia’s Forest, Wood and Paper Industries: Implications for Social License. Schirmer, J., et al, University of Canberra/Forest and Wood Products Association, 2017.

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