17 November 2007
Burning native forest is not renewable
 
Burning so-called 'waste wood' from native forests is neither clean nor renewable and definitely not 'green,' according to Greens candidate for Eden-Monaro, Keith Hughes.
Mr Hughes was commenting on an announcement that the Eden chipmill, which sources native forest logs from Ulladulla to East Gippsland, was planning to generate power from burning wood.
'The woodchippers are clearly seeing the writing on the wall for woodchip exports as a result of exchange rate problems and this looks like their Plan B,' he said.
Mr Hughes, who is an economist, said that the fact that Australian woodchip exports are priced in $A while their international competitors trade in $US may be pricing them out of the Pacific woodchip market.
'While the South East Fibre Exports (SEFE) plan makes it look as if they are getting their foot in the door with pine, I am confident that once they have their infrastructure, regulatory regime and their markets stitched up, they will get on with plundering native forests.'
'To describe this wood as 'waste' is a perversion of the language,' Mr Hughes said.
'We are talking about living breathing native forest, home to native animals, reservoir for water and, most importantly, a store for carbon. To call this "waste" is preposterous.'
Mr Hughes said that he feared SEFE had been encouraged to take this step by Labor Party Shadow Forestry Minister Martin Ferguson, who has visited the chipmill during this election campaign. Mr Ferguson wants to destroy 5 million tonnes of native forest a year, burn it and call it renewable energy.
'If they persist with this plan I can guarantee they will not get their way without a fight,' he said.
The election will be over in a few days' time, but the Greens and other forest campaigners will still be around.
'We will resist this at every opportunity,' Mr Hughes said.