Thursday, July 31, 2008

Conservation council rethinks logging position

ABC News Online, Posted Thu Jul 31, 2008 1:47pm AEST

The Conservation Council of Western Australia has adopted a new policy that opposes the felling of any native trees.

The council once supported logging of native regrowth forest but now wants all native forest left untouched.

Beth Shultz from the council says the forests are necessary to help counter climate change.

"Logging and burning of forests actually contributes to climate change," she said.

She says it makes no sense to continue the practice when trees can be logged from plantations.

However, the Forest Products Commission's Paul Biggs disagrees.

"We know the economy of Australia needs to develop towards more use of renewable materials, and of course timber is one of the best of those," he said.

Mr Briggs says the council's policy would only encourage the use of plastics or steel.

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