Victoria's Environment Minister Gavin Jennings has responded to concerns that the recent Strzelecki Ranges 'cores and links' deal will lead to the fragmentation and destruction of sensitive rainforest.
The Government's announcement was not in line with the original Heads of Agreement signed between the State Government, Hancock Victorian Plantations, Australian Paper, Trust for Nature and community representatives in October 2006.
Friends of the Gippsland Bush spokesperson, Susie Zent said the new agreement did not honour the original point of the cores and links project, to connect the Gunyah Gunyah rainforest with the Tarra Bulga National Park.
The State Government will pay $5.5 million plus 'in-kind' support to HVP and it says that an extra 15,000 hectares of bushland will be protected, with 1500 hectares subject to a one-off harvest by HVP. At this stage no detail has been provided to show which areas will be logged and as local groups were excluded from the final negotiations, there are major concerns that even the most sensitive areas are at risk.
Minister Jennings said it was clear two months ago that an agreement between the government, HVP and the environmental groups could not be reached.
'The difficulty was that negotiations had...
Tags:
cores and links, hancock victorian plantations, logging, rainforest, strzeleckis
Posted at: 07:31 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Gavin Jennings, the new Minister for the Environment is facing a serious threat to the Government's authority from his own bureacrats in Gippsland. The Gippsland Manager for DS&E has apparently told his staff that he will 'not allow' Government policy to be implemented in relation to management of the 'Cores and Links' agreement in the Strzeleckis.
Many of his own staff were aghast at his outburst because they believed that the outcome negotiated between Hancock, the community, local Shire's and the Government, had huge benefits for biodiversity.
The Manager had a tantrum because the land will be managed by Trust for Nature and not his boys. Pity he didn't help with the negotiations. It has taken 10 years to reach this stage - recognising the real value of some of the most important native vegetation in the region - and some Traralgon DS&E staff (with the help of some blockers in Melbourne) have done everything they can to screw it up.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for a 'shake-out' at DS&E Traralgon!
Tags:
cores and links, gavin jennings, strzeleckis
Posted at: 01:22 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
