August 18 2005

HOMELESS PARROTS IN THE FIRE

Call for a moratorium on logging Barmah State Forest in demonstration at Premier’s office

Media Release / Media Briefing

MEDIA RELEASE

Activists are today gathering at the Premier’s Office to demand action over a logging breach in the iconic Barmah State Forest.

“The Department of Sustainability and Environment just illegally destroyed 15% of the Victorian breeding grounds of the nationally threatened Superb Parrot ,” said Jonathan La Nauze, Friends of the Earth spokesperson. “Bracks must stop this vandalism of Yorta Yorta traditional lands now.”

Environmentalists and Yorta Yorta Traditional Owners will construct a mock lounge room outside Premier Bracks’ office. Pyjama-clad campaigners will be sitting on a couch by the fire, tossing ‘superb parrot logs’ on to keep warm.

Every year Melbournians burn more than 115,000 tonnes of red gum firewood – some of that will come from illegally logged superb parrot habitat.

“As Melbournians burn red gum to warm their homes, they are inadvertently burning the home of the threatened Superb Parrot,” said Jonathan La Nauze, Friends of the Earth spokesperson.

Afterwards, representatives will present a letter outlining their demands to the Premier’s Office.

“We will be calling for an immediate moratorium on all logging in Barmah – DSE have proved they can’t be trusted,” said Jonathan La Nauze, Friends of the Earth spokesperson.

Comments and Interviews available
Jonathan La Nauze, Friends of the Earth
m: 0402 904 251

Henry Atkinson, Yorta Yorta Nation Elders Council
m: 0415 287 263

Media Contacts
Jonathan La Nauze, Friends of the Earth Spokesperson
m: 0402 904 251

Henry Atkinson, Yorta Yorta Nation Spokesperson
m: 0415 287 263

1. Summary

• 60% of a 35 ha Superb Parrot Special Protection Zone was ‘accidentally’ logged in Barmah State Forest between March and June this year.

• Barmah Forest is the only remaining Victorian breeding grounds of the superb parrot (Polytelis swainsonii).

• This amounts to almost 15% of the remaining Superb Parrot breeding sites left in Victoria.

• Yorta Yorta Nation have condemned the destruction to their traditional country and highlighted that the State of Victoria has failed to implement the Yorta Yorta Cooperative Management Agreement which would enable Yorta Yorta people to reach informed consent about such forestry activities– it is still not implemented 14 months after it was signed.

• A major government investigation into River Red Gums is under way (VEAC), however it will not produce recommendations until February 2008.

• Friends of the Earth and Yorta Yorta Nation are calling for an immediate moratorium on logging in Barmah State Forest to allow the Yorta Yorta Joint Body to reached informed consent on any further operations, and VEAC to make its final recommendations.

2. Logging Breach

• Between February and June 2005, 60% of a 35 ha Superb Parrot Special Protection Zone was logged by DSE contractors in Barmah State Forest

• There are only about 156ha of Superb Parrot breeding sites left in Victoria, all in Barmah forest, and this operation has destroyed 23 ha – that’s about 15% of the total remaining breeding site

• This constitutes a breach of the Code of Forest Practice and may be the subject of legal prosecution in Victoria

• The Superb Parrot has been listed as threatened under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act and the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act

• DSE claim that the error occurred when "the logging operation intruded into the protection zone for superb parrots, because that (protection zone) hadn't been recorded in the Coupe Information System, and the forestry officer who would normally have known to check the maps was away ill" (quote from DSE Regional Director, Kevin Ritchie, which appeared in The Age on August 6th)

3. Red Gum Firewood Consumption in Melbourne

• The 2002 Victorian Firewood Strategy Discussion Paper estimated that 80% of firewood sold through retailers in Victoria is red gum. (page 31, available from the DSE website)

• The Discussion Paper also estimates that 287,951 tonnes of firewood are consumed in Melbourne, 50%(143,975 t) of if from commercial supply. 80% of this being red gum, that amounts to 115,180 tonnes of red gum firewood sold in Melbourne every year

4. Superb Parrot

• Only about 6,500 Superb Parrots are left in Australia, of which only about 200 come to Victoria each year to nest in the Barmah State Forest between September and December

• Barmah Forest includes the only remaining Victorian breeding grounds of the superb parrot (Polytelis swainsonii) (Webster & Ahern 1992), a bird that is listed as endangered in that state and vulnerable nationally (NRE 1999).

• Special Protection Zones (SPZs) include a buffer of 100m round known breeding sites for the parrot.

• The Superb Parrot nests in broken hollow limbs (spouts) or in holes in limbs of large, mature, healthy eucalypts adjacent to watercourses (Webster & Ahern 1992). Hollows do not form in red gums until they are at least 140 years old (Parson 1991).

• The superb parrot builds its nests in mature red gum but forages in box woodlands up to 9 kilometres away (Webster & Ahern 1992).

• The state government’s own management recommendations for the protection of the superb parrot within Barmah include the cessation of logging and grazing on all box ridges within 10 kilometres of known superb parrot nest sites which should mean timber logging should cease on almost all box ridges within the Barmah State Forest (Webster & Ahern 1992)

References

NRE. 1999. Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria - 1999. Melbourne: Department of Natural Resources & Environment.

Parson, A. 1991. Conservation and Ecology of Riparian Tree Communities in the Murray-Darling Basin, New South Wales: Literature Review. Sydney: New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service.

Webster, R & Ahern, L. 1992. Management for conservation of the Superb Parrot (Polytelis swainsonii) in New South Wales and Victoria. Melbourne: Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

5. Yorta Yorta Cooperative Management Agreement

• The Yorta Yorta Cooperative Management Agreement was signed in Echuca on June 10 2004, 14 months ago, but has not been fully implemented.

• The full agreement is available on the DSE website.

• The Agreement created the Yorta Yorta Joint Body, to provide advice and make recommendations to the Environment Minister in relation to land and water management issues including the approval or non-approval of logging operations.

• The Joint Body requires five Yorta Yorta representatives to obtain the informed consent of Yorta Yorta Nation for such recommendations to the state, however this has not been possible to date as the Joint Body has not yet met.