Clarence
Valley Environment Centre
Summer 2000 Newsletter
Committee Room
Late
in 1998 Jess Bowden asked me if I was interested in replacing her as Nature
Conservation Council and Clarence Environment Centre representative on
the Clarence Regional Vegetation Committee.
It is still early days yet, but 12 months down the track finds me deeply involved in the politics and intrigue of natural resource planning. The Nature Conservation Council now has the Chair on the committee with Peter Wrightson. The green reps on the committee are constantly in contact to ensure a co-hesive front, and regional and state forums for the reps have been extremely useful.
Department of Land and Water are playing the political game and are being very obstructionist. Rural interest members are finding themselves on a fast learning curve and having troubles comprehending the moss of knowledge available.
In real world terms nothing has yet been saved and the troubles have only deepened with the government recently introducing legislation for plantations, which would remove this type of development from the NVC Act. At present, locally, 95% of clearing applications are for plantations.
The whole process must be understood in the manner that what we are attempting to do is plan what the regional flora will resemble in the short and medium term. As such it is a totally conscious act of planning requiring of each of us a deeper appreciation of the regions flora. This may be a task beyond the abilities of many committee members but without an understanding and a qualification of the task involved the committee will fail.
There may be more of real common ground between the rural interest members and the greens than we think, and on practical terms the final plan will be a compromise between their vision and ours.
Any views, opinions and questions of the members would be welcomed. On a positive note there are still funds available for conservation and property agreements but this is fast running out. If there are any concerns over clearing that may be occurring contact Department of Land and Water or myself.
Fig Forest
CESJC Rep to NCC Nature Conservation Council
Phone: (02) 6644 8006
Clarence Environment Centre
17 Skinner Street
South Grafton NSW 2460 Australia
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Clarence Environment Centre
Ph/Fax: (02) 6643 1863
Email: cesjc@nor.com.au