UN Study criticises Green's claims to lock up forests

A KEY United Nation’s study completely debunks the Labor/Greens strategy to lock-up additional Australian forests.

In the forward to the State of the World’s Forests Report 2012 by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva says: “In a greener economy, more wood will be used for energy as the use of fossil fuel declines. “Net carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will decline as new trees are planted and nurtured to replace those that are used.”

In referring to the report, Coalition Forestry spokeperson, Senator Richard Colbeck said ‘green dinosaurs’ were stopping the forest industry from producing such positive environmental outcomes'.

“It is clear that rather than locking away more forests we should be responsibly managing our forests,” Senator Colbeck said.“The Labor/Green lock-up mentality is last-century thinking. For example, more carbon will be stored by managing a forest than locking it up.”

Senator Colbeck said the Australian forest industry had proved the quality of its forest management with regrowth being claimed for national parks, reserve or even world heritage listing.“This completely obliterates the claim that forests are being destroyed by the forest industry,” he said.

Senator Colbeck referred back to the forward, in which Mr Graziano da Silva says:“A challenge for the forest profession is to communicate the simple idea that the best way of saving a forest is to manage is sustainably and to benefit from its products and ecosystem services. If the principles of sustainable forest management are applied and forest products and ecosystem services play an increasing role, the global economy will become greener.”
(Article sourced from Timber and Forestry enews)