By KATH GANNAWAY
FEDERAL Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale on Wednesday morning 6 April reiterated the party’s commitment to the establishment of a Great Forest National Park in the Central Highlands.
Senator Di Natale was accompanied by Victorian Greens leader Janet Rice, Casey candidate Dr Elissa Sutherland and Victorian Greens member for Eastern Metropolitan Region Samantha Dunn on a tour of the Central Highlands forests from Warburton through to Toolangi.
Standing among the tree tops at the Rainforest Walk, just out of Warburton, the group heard from ANU senior forest ecology research officer David Blair on the proposal and need for the establishment of the park.
Mr Blair said there had been exceptional foresight by our forebears to close off areas for water catchment.
“We have been able to do some pretty amazing research by looking at the forest in these closed catchments and what is happening in the state forest and it’s chalk and cheese,” he said.
He described the definitive line with a clearly visible difference between the intact biodiversity as opposed to those affected by logging.
He said the protections put in place aimed at protecting habitat trees in logging coupes, and other measures to provide alternative habitat for the Leadbeater’s Possum, were inadequate.
“We are fiddling around with nest boxes and cutting holes in trees with chain saws and still burning around these big old trees,” he said.
Senator Di Natale said both the State and Federal Greens were committed to establishing the GFNP.
He said his response to the situation outlined by Mr Blair was enormous frustration.
“It’s hard not to get angry because what we are doing is so short sighted,” he said.
“We have to get to the heart of what the problem is here and it’s the propping up of an industry that is no longer profitable, very highly subsidised and has a massive environmental impact.
“The most obvious of those impacts, but not the only one, is that we are about to lose our Victorian faunal emblem.
“There was a time when we could be forgiven for losing some of our precious biodiversity, but there can be no excuses now.
“We know the possum is now on the brink of extinction and we continue to subsidise an industry that is no longer viable.”
He said there were strong economic reasons around tourism and jobs that underpinned the creation of the GFNP.
“It’s the Green’s policy, both State and Federal, that we want to see the establishment of the Great Forest National Park to protect biodiversity, but also to create jobs and investment in the region,” Senator Di Natale said.
“People come here to experience Australia’s incredible natural beauty, including forests like this that exist nowhere else in the world, yet we continue to damage these things.
“This region will thrive if we can only manage to shift our gaze from these old industries and towards tourism,” he said.
