LETTER: Politicians must save our forests

Ellen Sandell, East Brunswick
Letter, The Age, 9/11/06

Our politicians should heed the advice given in the Stern report: "Action to preserve the remaining areas of natural forest is needed urgently" ( The Age, 8/11). With only 10 per cent of Victoria's native forests remaining, something needs to be done to protect what is left, particularly of our old-growth forests.

Politicians from both major parties seem to be sidestepping the issue, with Ted Baillieu and Steve Bracks both seemingly more worried about loss of jobs in the timber industry than the threat of climate change. But if we don't take measures to halt climate change, more jobs will be lost than the few that remain in the native timber industry.

This is not something that we can afford to put off: emissions from deforestation are responsible for about 18 per cent of global greenhouse emissions — more than that of the global transport sector. So come on, Mr Bracks, move the timber industry to sustainable plantations rather than logging our native forests and destroying our future.