Geelong forest meeting follows Forrest forest meeting

COMMUNITY and environmental groups say their lobbying about the West Regional Forest Agreement (West RFA) has led to the state government agreeing to hold a meeting in Geelong on the issue.

The Victorian and federal governments have signed an agreement to modernise the RFA framework and are running a second phase of public consultations (known as Future of our Forests) throughout June ahead of the existing RFA expiring on March 31, 2020.

However, the Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN) and the Geelong Environment Council say the RFA should not be renewed as it has been superseded by policies to ban logging in the Otways by 2008 and create the Great Otway National Park – an election pledge by then-premier Steve Bracks in 2002.

A drop-in consultation session was held in Forrest on June 4, but environmentalists criticised the session for being held in a small town some distance from Geelong on a weekday during business hours.

“The current official boundary of the West RFA still excludes the Geelong metropolitan area,” OREN spokesperson Simon Birrell said.

“Formally, the process still does not recognise the fact that Geelong residents are stakeholders, given 70 per cent of the greater Geelong region domestic water supply comes from public forested land in the Otways.

“This latest formally organised meeting for Geelong residents has only come about due to our advocacy efforts that have alerted the community, through the local media, of the fact this West RFA renewal process is actually happening.

“This sham process is occurring despite previous public comment consultation processes that occurred a decade ago that have already recommended the West RFA be cancelled.”

The new meeting will be held in the Wurdi Yuang South Room, level 5, Geelong Library and Heritage Centre on Saturday, June 29 from 10am-noon.

Future of our Forests has commissioned and released a consultation paper from an independent environmental consultant that explains what the Victorian RFAs are, how they operate, and how effective they have been.

To download a copy of the paper or provide an online submission before Sunday, June 30, head to https://engage.vic.gov.au/future-of-our-forests.