Sacrificing the small native forest timber industry was a proud boast of WA Labor in the recent election. It has continued to spout its environmental credentials based on ending a sustainable and ecologically sound resource industry. This is just a green smokescreen to distract from the expansion of forest destruction through mining.
Greenwashing is now a refined political art. The Cook government is a hungry wolf dressed in the sheep’s (environmentalists’) clothing. Like most predators, it picks on the small and the weak. Most recently, the timber industry has been the government’s victim to prop up a populist green image whilst continuing its destructive activities.
The Cook government’s latest move has been to legislate sustainability out of the CALM Act, which governs how forests may be used. Sustainable forestry, the core of 100 years of successful forest conservation and timber industry activity, has been discarded. Driving this stake through the corpse of the timber industry was purely to appease the Greens because removing sustainable harvesting from the Conservation and Land Management (CALM) Act is unnecessary; the current Forest Management Plan already excludes timber yields until 2034.
The government’s pitch that it is necessary to do this to “protect our forests” fails by all tests. This is merely a slogan that does not match the Cook government’s destructive behaviour. There are four key areas that demonstrate the government’s duplicity:
No Conservation science
The WA government has failed to provide any science underpinning its logging ban decision. When asked in parliament to table any reports to demonstrate the science underpinning the ending of commercial native forest harvesting, the Environment Minister, Steven Dawson, refused to do so (QWN 736, 30/08/22). Even worse when asked to table reports to confirm the measurements of climate change on tree growth it was admitted that no such report exists (QWN 1490, 16/11/2023)
WA’s forests have been a haven for endangered species, even though they have been logged for 150 years. No species has become extinct. In fact, the forests have become the last refuge for species lost elsewhere.
The government’s own long term forest monitoring program, ForestCheck, has reported that forests are highly resilient to timber harvesting and that biodiversity recovers rapidly following disturbance.
Contrast this with mining. After 70 years of clearing of jarrah forests for bauxite, tens of thousands of hectares of rehabilitation have not been accepted back by the State. This failure to meet a standard of rehabilitation places a question mark over the loss of ecosystem values from mining.
Independent assessment supports timber production
Harvesting of WA’s jarrah and karri forests has been independently assessed against international environmental certification standards. Auditors examine the systems used to plan, manage and monitor the delivery of sustainable forest products. The WA’s state-government controlled forest manager has operated successfully under this scrutiny for 20 years.
Government announcements about the forest have failed to acknowledge the independent umpire, ignoring an inconvenient truth. Even as the government is legislating sustainable timber production out of the forests, the certification certificates are still proudly displayed on the WA state-government controlled forest manager’s website.
Timber harvesting has not stopped
Strangely enough, the ending of commercial timber harvesting does not mean the end of timber harvesting. Under the current Forest Management Plan, timber will be produced from up to 8,000 hectares per year of ecological thinning as well as from mine clearing. Prior to the announcement, between 6,000 and 7,000 hectares were harvested each year. Based on area, this represents an expansion of harvesting!
It is now impossible to consider log production as the WA state-government controlled foresr manager has refused to publish data on timber production since 2022/23. Based on information received, it appears that in 2024/25 the WA state-government controlled forest manager likely sold 300,000 tonnes of native forest logs as well as building stockpiles of around 100,000 tonnes. This is around 75% of the previous annual level of production as reported in the last published data in 2022/23.
Hiding the data does not disguise the reality that a significant level of log harvest is being maintained. It is necessary to keep some big businesses operating. The most unfortunate part of this continuation of timber production is that the government refuses to commit any logs under a binding contract, so no new industry can be developed to use the resource.
Forest destruction by mining is predicted to accelerate
The real deception behind the “protecting our forests” mantra is the scale of forest destruction that is continuing and expanding under the Cook government. Forest mining plans are continuously approved, most recently South 32, with Alcoa also looking to expand its bauxite mining operations until 2045. The Greenbushes lithium mine is also planning to knock over swathes of jarrah/marri forest.
There has been a sad history of destroying forest for coal, gold, gravel, tin, mineral sands and bauxite. Each activity removes and fragments the forest into smaller patches and not one miner has restored the forest to meet the government standard. Contrast this with timber production standard of forest performance which satisfied independent assessments.
There is now a new wave of forest destruction being planned. The new demand for battery minerals and rare earths sees the entire forest between Nannup and Collie covered with exploration leases. This will not be good news for the forests, yet the government remains impassive, not lifting a finger to “protect the forests”, implicitly supporting the impending destruction of thousands of hectares of prime forest.
There is no consistency between the government’s surprise execution of the timber industry and its unflagging support for the mining sector. The timber industry clearly demonstrated its sustainability whereas mining has failed to achieve base standards set by government.
How do we make sense of the government’s action? Perhaps we should heed “Deep Throat” who said “Follow the money!” The timber industry is small and lacks the financial clout of the miners. It was easy to kill off the timber industry to build the government’s false green credentials. It’s unlikely to stand up to the powerful mining lobby with the principle that “it is protecting the forest”.
Please Note: This is an opinion article and does not necessasrily represent the editorial position of Wood Central. From time to time, Wood Central will publish an opinion piece that it deems to be in the public interest – which it will fact check before publishing. For more information, visit Wood Central’s Editorial Charter.
