Minister Stitt: Its time to end native forest logging now OPEN LETTER

Letter to Minister Stitt, Victorian Minister for the Environment.  You can send a similar letter to Minister Stitt here

Dear Minister Stitt,

Please accept our congratulations on your appointment as the Victorian Minister for the Environment. 

As you will be aware, protection of forests and wildlife is a growing concern among Victorians, both in urban and regional areas.

Logs from native forests account for about 10% of the entire Victorian pulp and timber industry resource. The remainder is now plantation based. We urge you to announce a rapid exit out of all native forest logging as one of your first achievements as minister.

Current native forest logging practises are increasingly untenable and unsustainable for many reasons:

• VicForests is not a competent or trusted manager of public forests. Several attempts to attain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification have failed.
• Since 2004 it has relied heavily on millions of dollars of government hand-outs annually, rarely returning a dividend to the state.
• Multiple court cases have proven that VicForests has been operating in breach of Victorian legislation. Appealing court decisions compounds the cost to the tax-payer.
• After 18 years of operation, VicForests has demonstrated it can’t manage publicly-owned native forests, economically or legally. Logging native forests is unviable and VicForests should be wound up at the earliest opportunity.
• Winding up VicForests now will save the public money, protect forest biodiversity and water supplies, reduce fire risk and substantially contribute to meeting our climate change targets. Please refer to Victoria’s Carbon Report released recently by the Victorian Forest Alliance for further details. 
• With the transition funds that are already available, many workers could transfer their skills to areas of growing demand including emergency response workers, transport and land restoration.
• As demonstrated through the recent Victorian election, the community increasingly understands that eight more years of logging will further destroy remaining intact forests and the wildlife which is struggling to recover after horrific bushfires. 
• The native forest logging issue must be resolved. As the new environment minister, I urge you to make the bold decision to protect public forests and guide the industry in a new direction that is secure, economically viable, socially acceptable, lawful, helps slow the biodiversity crisis and meets the state’s climate targets. Ending all native forest logging across the state will also demonstrate that the government is listening to the concerns of the broader community.
• Such a move will be welcomed by the majority of Victorians. It will become an important legacy for the Andrews government and will allow the development of a new economy based on the state’s outstanding natural values. 

I greatly value our native forests and request they be protected from logging immediately.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Campbell

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