Issue 15 - March 2011 N e w s l e t t e r El Niño & La Niña, drought and flooding rains, we’ve had it all recently and it has been facinating to watch the landscape change with the water, as it heads inexorably towards the sea. Many creeks and rivers rising in the Wombat have not had decent flows during the last decade but fortunately that has been remedied for now and wetlands that have been dry for so long are brimming with life. See the changes for yourself, the forest, the rivers and creeks await you... Tibor Hegedis (editor) The real world of the Wombat Forest - Why the Wombat Forest matters even more in the International Year of Forests By Alison Pouliot It may not be the Amazon, the Tongass, or the Bialowieza, but the Wombat Forest combined I camped out in the Wombat with a few mates with the Lerderderg Forest represent the largest this summer. After three days of waking to the continual and most varied tract of forest in most wondrous avian choir, playing in the creek central Victoria. Although it has suffered and simply absorbing the magnificence of the the same barbaric treatment as many forests forest, one of the group prepared to leave and worldwide – intensive harvesting, mining, commented, “Oh well, I better be getting back to burning, poisoning, polluting, fragmenting and the real world.” A tad perplexed, I replied, “This wanton disregard - it still provides both tangible is the real world.” She looked at me as though I and intangible benefits, to its biota, to us, and was trying to be funny. I was totally serious. ultimately to all life on earth. Forests are the great green lungs of the world. They make our planet hospitable to life. They are treasure troves of species and the source of delight and inspiration. They are purifiers of air, makers of soil, wellsprings of water, consumers of carbon, managers of nutrients and regulators of weather systems. They support the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people. The Wombat Forest regenerates from the 2009 fires (photo © Alison Pouliot) continued next page... 1 Wombat Forestcare Newsletter - Issue 15 One doesn’t need to be a scientist to realise that Australia also has one of the world’s most destroying them is mind-bogglingly stupid. systematically designed processes for habitat protection (Fuller 2010) focused specifically on Take a deep breath. More than half of the conserving representative samples of all species world’s forests have been destroyed in the last and ecosystems (Watson 2009). We are also one thirty years. While deforestation may have of the most affluent and educated countries in marginally slowed compared to the previous the world. So why do we still hold this terrible decade, the statistics still defy comprehension. record of having one of the world’s highest rates About 4 billion hectares of forest or just over of species extinction? The answer is complex thirty percent of the Earth’s land surface and elusive but a starting point may be to take remain, according to the United Nation’s Food a closer look at our attitudes toward ‘natural’ and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). But of environments, both today and historically. this, only a third is primary forest and much This will be the focus of a piece in the next of the rest is seriously degraded. Despite our newsletter. Several prominent scientists have understanding of the devastating impacts of cautioned that if we don’t respond quickly to the such short-sighted thinking, our forests are consequences of this collective failure to meet still being chopped down - at a rate of 40,000 the 2010 biodiversity targets, the impacts may square kilometres per year. So what are we be irreversible. The 2010 Global Biodiversity doing about it? Outlook states that the fate of biodiversity for millennia to come will be determined by our IYB and IYF action or inaction over the next decade or two. The United Nations (UN) has declared 2011 the Despite these failings some positive outcomes Year of Forests (IYF) – to celebrate their beauty occurred in IYB. The 2010 biodiversity target and value, to raise awareness of conservation inspired many countries to increase their and to establish actions for sustainable national and international actions to support forest management. This follows on from biodiversity. New areas of land have been set International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). At the aside for protection while some existing protected close of 2010 one might ask what did Australia areas have been expanded. More funds have achieve in IYB? Did IYB have any real impact? been secured for implementing the Convention What was the barometer for success? Have we on Biological Diversity. Some 170 countries now lessened the rate of species extinction? Increased have national biodiversity strategies (although awareness? Increased protection? Or perhaps a notably, many of them fail to incorporate the more critical question is why did Australia fail third major kingdom, fungi). to meet the Johannesburg Biodiversity Target to significantly reduce Australia did have one the rate of biodiversity very substantial win in loss by 2010? Why did More than half of the world’s September 2010 when so many countries fail forests have been destroyed in the main destroyer to meet this target? the last thirty years. of Tasmanian native forest, Gunns Limited, Ecological thinking announced an end to in Australia was born long before the word old growth logging and a move to plantation ‘ecology’ entered the vernacular and was timber. This was the result of decades of pressure accepted as a discipline. Australia has produced and action in the forests, in the courts, on the pioneering ecological thinkers and practitioners streets and in the press from predominantly who have had significant international influence Tasmanian environment and political groups disproportionate to our population and global and individuals. economic importance (Mulligan and Hill 2001). We hold many ‘firsts’ in conservation such as the The Tasmanian Forest Statement of Principles world’s first green political party. The world’s has been delivered to the State Government and first conservation organisation is believed to sets out a framework that includes a moratorium have formed in Bendigo in 1888 (Bonyhardy to end logging in the ‘most precious forests’. 2000). Melbourne was a hub of conservation While the agreement is unlikely to put an end to work as early as the 1860’s. Royal National Park the forest debate, it still represents a significant near Sydney, proclaimed in 1879, was the world’s win for Tasmania’s forests. second national park. continued next page... 2 Wombat Forestcare Newsletter - Issue 15 Closer to home, Wombat Forestcare’s campaign to upgrade the protection and management of the Wombat by lifting its status to a State Park is also making terrific progress. To witness almost a hundred community members and representatives of conservation o r g a n i s a t i o n s attending the recent community forum is a positive sign of support for the proposal. The launch of the new campaign brochure adds to the VNPA’s ‘Better Protection for Special Places’ report which Blooming understorey (photo © Alison Pouliot) identifies the Wombat as needing better management and protection. To let it touch your imagination. To rediscover the Real World. But don’t believe me, find Repairing the broken link out for yourself. I’m betting that it might just inspire your heart, soothe your soul and enrich your life. Perhaps we can achieve in IYF what we failed to achieve in IYB. The UN’s focus with IYF References appears to be very much about engaging people. The challenge will be to achieve harmonious Bonyhady, T (2000). The Colonial Earth. coexistence between forests and people; find Melbourne University Press. Melbourne a balance between use and protection and manage collaborative partnerships on forest Fuller R.A., McDonald-Madden E., Wilson, protection. K.A., Carwardine J., Grantham H.S., Watson, J.E., Klein, C.J., Green, D. C. & Possingham, Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, said that “One of H.P. (2010). Replacing underperforming the first conditions of happiness is that the protected areas achieves better conservation link between man and nature shall not be outcomes. Nature, Vol. 466: 365-367 broken.” It is this broken link that we must repair if we are to save our remaining forests. Mulligan, M and Hill, S (2001) Ecological Pioneers: A social history of Australian We need to also find a way to celebrate forests, ecological thought and action. Cambridge to encourage engagement. The only way to University Press, Cambridge UK truly engage and appreciate our forests is to experience them first hand, to develop an Watson, J.E., Fuller R.A., Watson, A.W., affiliation, an ecological empathy, to repair the Mackey, B.G.,Wilson, K.A., Grantham, H.S., broken link. Turner, M., Klein, C.J., Carwardine, J., Joseph L.N., & Possingham, H.P. (2009). Wilderness This is the International Year of Forests. Our and future conservation priorities in Australia. local forest, the Wombat, is invaluable. Diversity and Distributions 15: 1028-1036. n Every effort must go toward maintaining its ecological integrity. It’s the year to discover The Wombat - to explore it, to celebrate it. 3 Wombat Forestcare Newsletter - Issue 15 DNA in order to examine genetic differences A New Species between the two groups. The results proved that By Gayle Osborne the possums were definitely two separate species. As a result, the existing species, Trichosurus Recent research has found that the Mountain caninus, was renamed the Short-eared Possum, Brushtail Possum, Trichosurus caninus or bobuck and the southern population was identified as a originally assumed to be one species is actually new species.