Nativesule, an organisation formed to address the sudden appearance of clear fell logging across Mid North Coast NSW and beyond, quickly organised a local film night to counteract the decision by federal MP Rob Oakeshott to move a motion in parliament that would permit retention of a carbon accounting loophole that would decree native forest biomass as an energy source ‘carbon neutral’ and therefore capable of subsidies as ‘renewable’ energy.
This media release promoted a short amateur film that tried to convey a little of what had been happening to Mid North Coast forests from around 2005, under the guise of ‘sustainable’ forest management. The scale of destruction aroused suspicions that some manipulation of carbon emission accounting was behind what was clearly a deliberate ‘sterilisation’ of Mid North Coast Forests including over logging the Auditor General observed in his 2009 audit.
Forests Corporation NSW employed multiple employees who attended with their families to combat the facts being portrayed in the film. That night, Justin Williams Central Planning Manager revealed the plans for a forest furnace at Kempsey to power 5,000 homes from native forest wood. (That document also appears in this section under the title ‘Forest Management and the Carbon Cycle on the Mid North Coast of NSW)
Download Publication