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Environment Forest Ecosystems Forest Industries Forest Management Forest Products Greenhouse Gases NAFI Submissions Policy and Politics Renewable Energy Sustainability |
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National Forestry Submission to Bushfire InquiryThe National Association of Forest Industries has made a major submission to the House of Representatives Select Committee on the Recent Bushfires.The NAFI submission calls on the Select Committee to take full advantage of the important role it has been given. "Following the tragic loss of life and the historic destruction of property and environmental reserves that took place during the recent summer, there is a vital need to draw together evidence on the causes and effects of bushfires and provide expert practical solutions on what to do about them," according to NAFI Executive Director Kate Carnell. "The Committee can deal firmly with many of the policy mistakes that have added to the destruction and loss due to fires." "The industry's Submission refers the Committee to the key issues, and proposes sensible, effective measures to address them so that the Australian environment, and future generations of Australians, can avoid future appalling destruction." Extract from the Forestry Industry Submission: "…high frequency fire has recently been nominated as a threatening process under the [Victorian] Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. … however, over-burning is not occurring at either a Statewide or at a bioregional scale. … …the threat which fire frequency poses to species composition and community conservation in Victoria is in fact from under-exposure to fire. Fire frequency is too low across the landscape. Neither frequent fire nor the absence of fire are desirable; rather a diversity of fire regimes (of varying intensities, scales, seasons and fire intervals) is needed to maintain the biodiversity of these communities. The continued survival of these vegetation communities on a broad scale will rely on the active management of fire across the landscape. While at a single location fire may occur in a vegetation type too frequently, the overwhelming proportion of [vegetation types] with age class distributions far from their ‘ideal’ clearly indicates that there is a need to promote and target the active use of fire as a tool for ecological management…" The conclusions cited above were made by a scientific panel advising the Victorian Government’s land management authorities in March 2002. They underline the fact that our natural environment, as much as our social and economic interests, needs an urgent and dramatic improvement in fire management practices. Download the full Submission: The submission is attached as a PDF file (go BACK to previous window and click on "- PDF -". |
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