Showing posts with label #standup4forests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #standup4forests. Show all posts

Monday, 16 December 2024

North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) continues to call for an end to the logging of public native forests as Forestry NSW losses on such logging rises to $29 million on the back of a $15 million loss in the 2022-23 financial year following on from a $9 million loss in 2021-22 & a $20 million loss in 2020-21 year

 

Snapshot image via Meredith Staunton on X/Twitter
Click on image to enlarge


According to NEFA, the FCNSW 2023/24 Biomaterial Report identifies Forestry NSW as logging 9,484 ha of native forests in the last financial year.


The current state minister responsible for the Forestry Act 2012 (NSW) is Tara Moriarty MLC, Minister for Agriculture. Under the Forestry Act 2012, Forestry Corporation of New South Wales (Forestry NSW), has two voting shareholders, the NSW Treasurer (currently Daniel Mookhey MLC) and Minister for Finance (currently Courtney Houssos MLC), who appoint the Board of Directors.


Forestry NSW as a government-owned corporation manages around two million hectares of multiple-use public native forests, including coastal native forests, cypress forests and red gum forests and, a small number of hardwood plantations.


The responsibility and accountability 'buck' has always stopped with successive NSW governments when it comes to forestry in this state and, in 2024 there is no legitimate excuse for the Minns Labor Government and Ministers Moriarty, Mookhey and Houssos to continue down this environmentally and financially ruinous path towards a multiple species flora & fauna extinction event.


Friday, 6 December 2024

22 arrests and counting in forest defenders fight to stop logging in Bulga State Forest since 1 October 2024

 

Forestry Corporation of NSW resumed logging in the Bulga State Forest, west of Comboyne in the Mid-North Coast region of New South Wales', in early October 2024.


Since then 22 forest defenders, including Knitting Nannas, have been attested in the state forests.


Here are just three of these defenders......



ECHO, 4 December 2024:






Knitting Nannas Dominique Jacobs (60) and Helen Kvelde (73) yesterday became the 21st and 22nd people arrested protesting the logging of Bulga State Forest, west of Port Macquarie. They had attached themselves to the giant tree killing machine known as a harvester.


Both Nannas are active in protesting the lack of action on climate change and are deeply dismayed that the most effective carbon capture and storage technology on the planet, mature forests, are being destroyed at taxpayer expense.


Dom Jacobs said, ‘I’m a grandmother and a wildlife carer. I’m terrified about the future my grandkids face and what is happening to the wild creatures and wild places. We are losing so much that is perfect and wonderful on this planet and I’m really worried about what will be left for those who come after us.


As a wildlife carer I get to know those little creatures intimately, they have personalities, they are very susceptible to stress. The thought of them in their beautiful forest homes with trees crashing around them and all the noise of the machines, I can’t imagine their terror.


We humans, we take everything. We need to leave something. We need to leave some places be,’ she said.


I want to do everything I can. I want to do something that has real impact. Stopping the chopping of glider and koala homes is a good way to spend a day.’


Increasingly fed up


Helen Kvelde said, ‘I feel like I’ve been fighting this war for 50 years and I’m getting more and more fed up. The powers that be aren’t listening, not to the people or the scientists. Climate chaos is here now, it’s happening all over the globe and governments, logging and fossil fuel companies are still acting as if there is no tomorrow.


I’m bewildered at the lack of action. I’ve been to so many rallies and marches, signed petitions, written letters but it feels like we are just going through the motions. As Greta Thunberg said all we get back is bla bla bla.


Our governments are full of hot air and empty promises. They say they see climate change as a serious threat and that there is a biodiversity crisis, but their actions suggest they think it’s a joke or it’s not real,’ she said.


It’s like I’m watching the Lorax play out in real life. It was a story where in order to get rich, all the trees were cut down, and the land was left a dirty stinking wreck.


I’m hoping that our action today gives kids hope and encourages others to do the same. I’m a bit frightened but I also feel that desperate times require desperate measures,’ said Ms Kvelde.


Both women agreed that forests like Bulga are vital for threatened wildlife, saying that we need to respect and care for all those big trees, not just for their intrinsic right to exist and live in peace, but because they defend us from the most dangerous threat of all: climate chaos.



Save Bulga Forest, media release, 15 October 2024:


John Seed OAM, attached to logging machinery
in Bulga State Forest, 15th October 2024



John Seed, founder of the Rainforest Information Centre and the Deep Ecology Network was arrested today for attaching himself to logging machinery in Bulga forest.

John, now in his 79th year, says he had a transformative experience in the rainforests of north east NSW during the Terania Creek protests in 1979.


The forest spoke to me. Working to keep the trees standing was the best use of my short time on this amazing jewel of a planet, so far the only one of its kind that we know of in this galaxy.


It’s 45 years since I was FIRST arrested for the forests (and for which I subsequently received an OAM after the Wran government turned the forest where I was arrested into the Nightcap National Park – now on the World Heritage list along with the Grand Canyon and the Serengeti).


I believe the Bulga Forest will also find its way into National Park and World Heritage status once this government wakes up. Then tourism will earn orders of magnitude more than the vandalism that we’re currently trying to stop.


There’s been no proper assessment of the damage done by the 2019/20 fires. We don’t know how many trees and animals died, how many hollow habitat trees were lost. The most basic element of the precautionary principle is that if you don’t know, stop making things worse.


Climate chaos is barrelling towards us. We need to stop making the damage worse and focus on earth repair and building resilience. How can we have hope for a future for our kids and grandkids if our governments insist on destroying the planet’s protection mechanisms,” he said.


In 1995 John was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services to conservation and the environment. Through his work over the decades, the Rainforest Information Centre has supported communities in PNG, the Solomon Islands, Cambodia, Ecuador, India to defend their forests, through direct action, establishment of protected forest areas, reafforestation programs or funds for litigation.


Monday, 4 March 2024

North East Forest Alliance & Environmental Defenders Office fight on to protect the continued existence of native forests and the biodivsersity they contain

 

Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), March 2024 Newsletter, 29 February 2024:









Hope for NSW forests: Court decision upholds community’s right to challenge native forest logging


In the shadow of claims made by the NSW Forestry Corporation, communities have been led to believe that they have no rights to challenge decisions about industrial logging in NSW native forests or seek action over unlawful conduct when logging destroys hollow-bearing trees and critical habitat for threatened species.


But two recent court decisions have shattered those claims after EDO’s client successfully ran an argument which hasn’t previously been tested in the courts. After 20 years of resistance by the Forestry Corporation, it is now legally recognised that communities with a special interest have the right to hold the state-owned logging agency to account over its forestry operations in native forests.


NSW forests are remarkable for their diverse ecosystems, unique biodiversity and cultural significance. Encompassing semi-arid woodlands to lush rainforests, these globally recognised forests are home to an extraordinary array of plant and animal life, much of which is unique to the region.


Protecting our forests is one of the most important things we can do to manage climate change, preserve our precious biodiversity and prevent further species extinctions. Yet Forestry Corporation NSW logs around 30,000 hectares of state forest every year. Sadly, many of these forests are logged to be turned into low-value products, such as woodchips, that are exported to make cardboard and toilet paper.


Weak laws failing our forests


NSW Forestry Corporation is the state-owned logging agency that undertakes industrial logging in public native forests, including in nationally important koala habitat and areas that are still recovering from the catastrophic impacts of the 2019-20 Black Summer Bushfires. It is entrusted with managing two million hectares of public forests, yet in the past three years alone, Forestry Corporation has been fined 12 times for illegal logging activities. There are 21 investigations still pending. 1


Forestry Corporation operates under bilateral agreements with the Federal Government, called ‘regional forest agreements’, or RFAs, which allow logging to bypass normal federal environmental scrutiny. No other industry benefits from such an allowance. Under the current system of RFAs, threatened species such as the koala, greater glider and gang-gang cockatoo are being driven to extinction and the ecosystems and landscapes that we depend on are being destroyed at an astounding rate.


For some 20 years, Forestry Corporation has asserted that the community cannot seek to challenge its public native forestry operations. On 20 November 2023, the NSW Land and Environment Court rejected that position.


Court decision confirms community right


The EDO represented the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) in mid-2023 challenging logging approvals in Myrtle and Braemar State Forests. The forests were severely damaged by the ferocious Black Summer Bushfires, which wiped out an estimated 70 per cent of the local koala population.


While NEFA was not ultimately successful, the court confirmed for the first time that the Forestry Act does not prevent persons with a special interest from taking legal action over forestry operations in NSW, including disputing logging approvals.


This is particularly important as NSW laws explicitly attempt to reduce the community’s right to challenge Forestry Corporation conduct regarding industrial native forest logging.


Forestry Corporation also argued that the court cannot judicially review harvest and haul plans because all forestry operations had already been approved by the relevant Ministers in the overarching regulation, the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (CIFOA). However, the court again rejected that position and found that such operational plans are open to challenge.


Forest groups fight on after disappointing court decision


Building on the NEFA decision, South East Forest Rescue (SEFR) then took a step further with court action in January 2024. SEFR is seeking an injunction to stop Forestry Corporation from conducting any forestry activities in certain state forests until adequate surveys for greater, yellow-bellied and squirrel gliders have been performed. SEFR is being represented by XD Law.


SEFR argued that Forestry Corporation is breaking the law by not performing adequate surveys for den trees and necessary exclusion zones around den trees are not being implemented. It is the first time in 25 years that the Forestry Corporation has been brought to court by citizens for failure to comply with native forestry regulations, in particular failure to conduct adequate surveys for gliders.


Drawing from the findings in the NEFA decision, her Honour found that persons with a special interest can also seek to enforce the conditions of the CIFOA against Forestry Corporation.


These two decisions mark a significant departure from the status quo of the past 20 years and set important precedent for the community to hold the Forestry Corporation to account over native forest logging.


President of NEFA, Dailan Pugh said regarding NEFAs legal challenge:


While NEFA were disappointed that our legal challenge to the logging of important Koala populations in Braemar and Myrtle State Forests was not successful, it’s promising that the case did establish that NEFA have the civil right to enforce NSW’s logging rules, opening a door to litigation we thought had been shut to us since 1998.”


We thank the EDO for the immense effort they put into this case and creating future opportunities for NEFA, and other groups, to challenge the culture of complacency around logging fostered by lack of public accountability.”


1 Register of Crown forestry investigations (nsw.gov.au)


Sunday, 18 February 2024

Does NSW Premier Chris Minns, his Environment Minister Penny Sharpe or Agricultural Minister Tara Moriarty ever wonder just whose interests the forestry brands that lobby them conceal from view?


“Put the foresters back in charge of the forests.” 

Malcolm David McComb, Pentarch Group, quoted in The Monthly, November 2020


According to the 'privately-owned' Melbourne-based PENTARCH GROUP it commenced business in 1984, combining the expertise of five individuals with diverse commercial backgrounds. In the early 1990s, the group’s primary focus was on three key businesses - representing major international manufacturers of military hardware, exporting containerised hay to Japan, and exporting softwood logs to South Korea - through its Industrial, Forestry and Agricultural divisions.


By 2019 the Group was managing over 8,000ha of land - with est. 30 per cent of the defined forest area being native forest. 


That year NSW Deputy Premier and Minister responsible for Forestry John Barilaro announced Pentarch Logistics Pty Ltd was receiving a $3 million grant to drive innovation and technology advancements in the NSW forestry industry.


In August 2021 the Group purchased the assets of Dormit Pty Ltd which operated two sawmills and associated operations located at Dandenong South and Swifts Creek in Victoria. That same year Boral divested its timber business to the Group in October 2021. Allen Taylor & Company, Duncan’s Holdings and their subsidiaries (collectively known as Boral Timber) now trade under the brand Pentarch ForestryThis acquisition saw Pentarch add eight sawmills, including part ownership of the Highland Pine mill at Oberon, to allegedly become the largest hardwood processor in NSW.


Pentarch Forestry exports in excess of 800,000tn per annum of plantation softwood and hardwood from Australian and New Zealand ports. This division is actively involved in forestry harvesting and haulage; port logistics including marshalling, storage and stevedoring; and international marketing and shipping.


These days its forestry division boasts that its key woodchip and logs export destinations are; China, India, Japan, Korea and the Middle East. While its sawn timbers are listed as being sourced from; Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia. 


By 2022 the Pentarch Group operated 20 sites nationally with a high concentration of timber mills in NSW.


The Pentarch Group clearly states:

Timber sustainably sourced from our native forests is our most valuable and precious resource and Pentarch Forestry™ takes pride in finding ways to better use every part of that resource.


In particular Pentarch Forestry harvests Tasmanian hardwood logs from the north-west of that state and timber from native forests (including privately-owned native forest) on land around Nungatta, Mila & Delegate in NSW, as well as from Combienbar, Murrangower & Bendoc in Victoria and, apparently sees itself as helping to protect and manage a large permanent native forest estate.


[Mapping at https://pentarchforestry.com.au/sustainability-environment/sustainable-forest-management/]


The Group's milled native timber is ending up as everything from solid timber floor boards through to mass produced wooden pallets for industry and woodchips as a secondary product.


Its offices can be found at 18 different locations across five states. [See list & details at end of this post]


In its April 2022 submission to the NSW Legislative Council's INQUIRY INTO LONG TERM SUSTAINABILITY AND FUTURE OF THE TIMBER AND FOREST PRODUCTS INDUSTRY, Pentarch advocated for the permanent retention of multiuse State Forest. Also expressing a sense of frustration that the forestry industry had not been allowed carte blanche to clear the 2019-20 native forest fire grounds of all suitable timber. Apparently a firm believer in a forest restoration harvesting process. Leaving this reader with the suspicion that the Pentarch Group belongs to the 'lets keep the forest floor tidy' brigade.


2022 was also the year that Pentarch Forestry Pty Ltd had  its Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) sustainability certification (first obtained in 2017) suspended when a renewal audit found that Pentarch’s due diligence system was out of date, regrowth native forest and plantation wood were at risk of being mixed together, and threatened species assessments were not being done.


Prime Minister Scott Morrison & Chairman Pentarch Group Malcolm McComb. IMAGE: Merimbula News Weekly, 23 June 2020





Despite the apparent ease of access to political decision makers large forestry corporations appear to enjoy at federal & state government level, this apparently doesn't satisfy all in the industry that their voices are the loudest. 


The Pentarch Group chairman also reportedly co-founded Forest and Wood Communities Australia which has a dedicated website, a Facebook page and an X/Twitter account with the less than subtle principal aim of pushing back against so-called "environmental extremists", "ideological idiocy", criticising the Victorian Government and pressuring the NSW Minns Labor Government. The social media accounts in particular have a tendency to mislead.


The faces fronting the Pentarch Group are on display at:

http://www.pentarch.com.au/pentarch_team.html.


However, the principal corporations in this group are very careful to conceal shareholder identities - all shares in the following three registered companies are beneficially held by the companies on behalf of unnamed individuals/corporations.


Although it is not hard to imagine that the Sedger, McComb, Yuncken, Cuthbertson and Dadd families might properly feature heavily on the shareholder list - along with a discreet number of self-managed super funds, investment entities and trusts. It is also not hard to imagine that the 'hidden' nature of such shareholder lists might potentially contain conflicts of interest for state and local governments dealing with the forestry industry.


It is noted that the Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for Environment and Minister for Heritage, Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Regional NSW and Minister for Western NSW and the NSW Treasurer were meeting in 2023 with members of the forestry industry concerning what was loosely described as "forestry industry reform" and "forestry matters".


~~~~~~~~~~



PENTARCH GROUP PTY LTD

ACN: 064 165 635

ABN: 21064165635

Registered in: Victoria

Registration date: 31/03/1994

Registered address & principal place of business:

'Kings Garden Estate' Level 1, 99 Coventry Street,

SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


Directors:

MALCOLM DAVID MCCOMB (Victoria)

IAN KENNETH SEDGER (Victoria)

SIMON JOHN YUNCKEN (Victoria)

FRASER JEFFREY CUTHBERTSON (Victoria)

STEPHEN GORDON DADD (NSW)

Company Secretary:

SIMON JOHN YUNCKEN


Shares issued:

Ordinary Shares - 1,438 Fully Paid

  • 838 Beneficially held by: TIMBER AUDITS & TECHNOLOGY PTY LTD

  • 600 Beneficially held by: PENTARCH GROUP PTY LTD


Current roles in the following organisations:


PENTARCH PERMACULTURE & CARBON PTY LTD

ACN: 661 995 035

ABN: 98661995035

Address: Unknown


OCEAN2EARTH PTY LTD

ACN: 663 110 629

ABN: 71663110629

Address: Unknown


Current shares and interests in:


*675,000 CLASS I SHARES & 1,125,000 CLASS

N_SHARES Fully Paid

Beneficially held by: SOUTH EAST FIBRE EXPORTS PTY LTD

ACN: 000 604 795

ABN: 85000604795

Address: Unit 1, 250 Charman Road, CHELTENHAM VIC 3192


*600 Ordinary Shares Fully Paid

Beneficially held by: PENTARCH HOLDINGS PTY. LTD

ACN: 064 165 635

ABN: 21064165635

Address: Level 1, 99 Coventry Street, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


*96,000 Ordinary Shares Fully Paid

Beneficially held by: ALLIED NATURAL WOOD ENTERPRISES PTY LTD

ACN: 607 144 089

ABN: 65607144089

Address: Jews Head Edrom Road, EDEN NSW 2551


*96,000 Ordinary Shares Fully Paid

Beneficially held by: SAPPHIRE FORESTS PTY LTD

ACN: 607 256 780

ABN: 85607256780

Address: Jews Head Edrom Road, EDEN NSW 2551


*10,000 Ordinary Shares Fully Paid

Beneficially held by: ALLIED NATURAL WOOD EXPORTS (TAS) PTY LTD

ACN: 619 876 345

ABN: 23619876345

Address: Jews Head, EDROM NSW 2551


*1,000 Ordinary Shares Fully Paid

Beneficially held by: FORESTS IN PERPETUITY PTY LTD

ACN: 639 068 732

ABN: 84639068732

Address: Level 1, 99 Coventry Street, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


*73,740 Ordinary Shares Fully Paid

Beneficially held by: TIMBER AUDITS & TECHNOLOGY PTY LTD

ACN: 094 390 271

ABN: 88094390271

Address: 'Kings Garden Estate' Level 1, 99 Coventry Street, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


*10,000 Ordinary Shares Fully Paid

Beneficially held by: PENTARCH PERMACULTURE & CARBON PTY LTD

ACN: 661 995 035

ABN: 98661995035

Address: Level 1, 99 Coventry Street, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


~~~~~~~~~~


PENTARCH HOLDINGS PTY. LTD

ACN: 064 165 635

ABN: 21064165635

Registered in: Victoria

Registration date: 31/03/1994

Registered address & principal place of business:

'Kings Garden Estate' Level 1, 99 Coventry Street,

SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


Directors:

MALCOLM DAVID MCCOMB (Victoria)

IAN KENNETH SEDGER (Victoria)

SIMON JOHN YUNCKEN (Victoria)

FRASER JEFFREY CUTHBERTSON (Victoria)

STEPHEN GORDON DADD (NSW)

Company Secretary:

SIMON JOHN YUNCKEN


Shares issued:

Ordinary Shares - 1,438 Fully Paid

  • 838 Beneficially Held by: TIMBER AUDITS & TECHNOLOGY PTY LTD

  • 600 Beneficially Held by: PENTARCH GROUP PTY LTD


Ultimate holding company for:


PENTARCH FOREST PRODUCTS PTY LTD

ACN: 059 465 879

ABN: 57059465879

Address: Level 2, 121-123 High Street, PRAHRAN VIC 3181


ARI LEASING PTY. LTD

ACN: 072 963 798

ABN: 77072963798

Address: Unknown


PENTARCH LOGISTICS PTY LTD

ACN: 075 432 254

ABN: 99075432254

Address: Level 2, 121-123 High Street, PRAHRAN VIC 3181


PENTARCH AGRICULTURAL PTY LTD

ACN: 101 274 613

ABN: 45101274613

Address: "KINGS GARDEN ESTATE", Level 1, 99 Coventry

Street, SOUTH MELBOURNE VIC 3205


SAPPHIRE HAULAGE PTY LTD

ACN: 132 292 436

ABN: 55132292436

Address: Unknown


NARROGIN HAY PTY LTD

ACN: 104 157 593

ABN: 73104157593

Address: 'Kings Garden Estate' Level 1, 99 Coventry Street, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


PENTARCH STEVEDORING PTY LTD

ACN: 108 439 185

ABN: 53108439185

Address: 'Kings Garden Estate' Level 1, 99 Coventry Street, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


MALLEE HAY PTY LTD

ACN: 123 956 089

ABN: 78123956089

Address: 'Kings Garden Estate' Level 1, 99 Coventry Street, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


PENTARCH FARMS PTY LTD

ACN: 123 956 105

ABN: 97123956105

Address: 'Kings Garden Estate' Level 1, 99 Coventry Street, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


~~~~~~~~~~


TIMBER AUDITS & TECHNOLOGY PTY LTD

ACN: 094 390 271

ABN: 88094390271

Registered in: Victoria

Registration date: 06/09/2000

Registered address & principal place of business:

Registered address: 'Kings Garden Estate' Level 1, 99 Coventry Street, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006


Directors:

MALCOLM DAVID MCCOMB (Victoria)

IAN KENNETH SEDGER (Victoria)

SIMON JOHN YUNCKEN (Victoria)

Company Secretary:

SIMON JOHN YUNCKEN


Shares issued:

Ordinary Shares - 73,740 Fully Paid

Beneficially held by: PENTARCH GROUP PTY LTD


~~~~~~~~~~



Pentarch Group offices current as of 17.02.24:


TASMANIA


Massy Greene Drive

South Burnie, Tas, 7320

PO Box 3033

Ph: 03 6430 7333


VICTORIA


Level 1, 99 Coventry Street

Southbank, Vic, 3006

Ph: 03 9621 7900


Great Alpine Road,

Swifts Creek, Vic, 3896

Ph: 03 5159 4438


98 Indian Drive

Keysborough, Vic, 3173

Ph: 1800 818 317


96-106 Ordish Road,

Dandenong, Vic, 3175

Ph: 03 9706 5744


QUEENSLAND


838 Nudgee Road

Northgate, Qld, 4013

Ph: 1800 818 317


Suite 12 Level 1,

84 Wises Road

Maroochydore, Qld, 4558

PO Box 5561

Ph: 1800 818 317


SOUTH AUSTRALIA


176-178 Magill Road

Norwood, SA, 5067

Ph: 1800 818 317


NEW SOUTH WALES


Eden Log Export Facility

Lot 2, Edrom Road

Eden, NSW, 2551

Ph: 02 6496 0252

Eden, NSW


Eden Chip Export Terminal

Edrom Road, Jews Head

Eden, NSW, 2551

Ph: 02 6496 0222


420 Herons Creek Road

Herons Creek, NSW, 2443

Ph: 02 6585 7188


43 Mill Road

Koolkhan, NSW, 2460

PO Box 437

Ph: 02 6644 7280


13056 Summerland Way

Kyogle, NSW, 2474

PO Box 187

Ph: 02 6632 1866


148 Tweed Valley Way

Murwillumbah, NSW, 2484

PO Box 56

Ph: 02 6670 8700


6016/6018 Princess Highway

Narooma, NSW, 2546

PO Box 75

Ph: 02 4476 7908


Unit D1, Regents Park Estate

391 Park Road

Regents Park, NSW, 2143

Ph: 1800 818 317


50 BTU Road

South Nowra, NSW, 2541

PO Box 5014

Ph: 02 4447 8262



PRINCIPAL SOURCES: