Goongerah Environment Centre welcomes the re-appointment of Lily D’Ambrosio as Minister for Environment in the Andrews government cabinet. The government must do more to protect Victoria’s forests and we believe the Minister recognises this.

We look forward to working constructively with Minister D’Ambrosio to ensure that meaningful protection of Victoria’s native forests is achieved and that VicForests and the Department of Environment will be held fully accountable for logging operations that have breached environmental protection laws.

There are a number of environmental issues that remain unfinished business from the previous term of the Andrews government. Minister D’Ambrosio has responsibility for these issues so we’ve put together a ‘to do list’ for the Minister. First on the list are tasks to complete within the first 100 days of government, second on the list are actions that must be taken in the long term.

The Victorian Government’s daft “fuzzy map” excuse for VicForests logging outside its allocated forest area could mean that all VicForests’ logging in the past five years may be unlawful.

The Andrews Labor Government told the ABC, which broke the story of the illegal logging,[i] that it’s not possible to tell whether its own logging agency, VicForests, is compliant with the law due to a fuzzy map.

Government owned logging agency VicForests appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court today defending charges for logging protected rainforest areas near Cann River in East Gippsland. Charges were laid by the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP) after community reporting of a serious breach of rainforest protections in March 2016.

Logging has been stopped by the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP) in forest near Goongerah.

The forest is habitat for the endangered large brown tree frog (Litoria littlejohni), a species thought to be extinct from Victoria until rediscovered by GECO volunteers last year. The frog is only know in Victoria from six recently recorded sites.

Thom Mitchell

The Victorian government has fined a conservationist who exposed what the Environment Minister described as “very disturbing” and “extremely poor practice” logging, despite reports he helped prepare becoming a catalyst for substantial reform of industry guidelines.

Originally published by New Matilda: https://newmatilda.com/2015/08/10/victorian-government-thanks-conservationists-exposing-disturbing-logging-practices-fining/