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CSIRO investigated by Commonwealth Ombudsman

CSIRO research funds given to logging lobby group

We recently asked the CSIRO to cancel its $10,000 membership to Australia’s national logging lobby group, Australian Forests Products Association (formerly NAFI) as it was inappropriate and against the charter for the CSIRO.

The CEO refused. We took the issue to the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office. It also reckoned that such membership to political lobby groups was totally acceptable and that the networking benefits outweighed any reputational damage.

What other political lobby groups are government agencies funding under the guise of ‘membership fees? We wonder if CSIRO is also funding the coal industry, the mining or uranium lobby. I’ll bet their Animal Health division hasn’t paid $10,000 to join Animals Australia, or its Marine Division joined Sea Shepherd.

CSIRO’s precious research funds are directly being funneled into AFPAs campaign of attacking government policies and lobbying for more funds for CSIRO’s Forestry Division.

If they believe there is no conflict of interest, if their judgment is correct and it’s an appropriate use of tax-payers’ money, then we believe we are also eligible to request the CSIRO become a member of EEG – they can have a special ‘Wink-Wink’ membership rate of $10,000 a year. We’ll offer them real value for money in providing a balance of information. Their Code of Conduct states they must remain unbiased - so it’s only fair they seek the valuable contribution that Environment East Gippsland can provide.

We have formally requested the Ombudsman’s office review our complaint and respond sensibly.

But meanwhile we have decided to set up a new membership category for corporates and government agencies. See below.

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Environment East Gippsland Inc invites Government and corporate sponsor/membership for valuable communication and networking.

Annual fee: $10,000 membership.

Open invitation for CSIRO Forestry Division to become a member of EEG.

In response to the finding of the Commonwealth Ombudsman on 14th May 2012, EEG is providing organisations like CSIRO, DSE, VicForests and private companies such as SEFE, an opportunity to invest in a valuable networking opportunity by taking out a ‘Wink-Wink’ membership with Environment East Gippsland Inc.

EEG, as a dynamic forest conservation group, has a very long and detailed history of the economics, science and politics of logging. We have statewide, national and international connections as well as the most up to date scientific research and economic analysis of the logging of native forests.

The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA), a group which argues for increased logging of public forests, increased subsidies to carry out that logging and less logging regulations, is currently receiving the benefits of the CSIRO’s membership fee of $10,000 a year. The CSIRO believes that these memberships that are “of a diverse range of associations and mechanisms through which CSIRO access industry and research networks… builds networks that assist us to fulfill our statutory functions.” So we believe they will gladly accept our invitation to become a member of our legally incorporated forest group which has many years of valuable knowledge.

We believe the benefits of membership to EEG would outweigh any reputational damage done as a result of our aims and objectives - as CSIRO states is the case with their membership of the logging lobby group, AFPA.

For such a member/sponsorship, CSIRO forest division would have access to all of our science contacts, biologists, research, videos, survey results, submissions, photographic evidence, maps, market research, industry analysis, trends, on-the-ground local knowledge, and archival material about the forest industry, the biology of our forests, and about the woodchip and timber markets - all making sponsoring EEG a valuable investment.

We provide an excellent newsletter and regular updates on what’s going on in the real world.

We can also host a meeting of all parties with our experts over three days in the heart of SE Australia’s forests at Goongerah. This would include a tour of a range of forests, logged, unlogged, forests not growing back and forests which have been converted to woodchip crops. We would also provide the latest cost-benefit analysis which has come from the Australian National University, and provide information on the benefits of forests as carbon capture and storage mechanisms.

As value for money, we believe the CSIRO could not do better to meet its statutory obligations, than to join Environment East Gippsland as a Wink-Wink member.

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Below is a link to the ABC’s AM story (18th May 2012)on the Ombudsman's response to CSIRO's membership of lobby groups
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3505513.htm

After this very damaging report, it would be great if people could email or phone CSIRO letting them know that they have lost all faith in the organisation.

Phone them on 1300 363 400 - 9am to 4pm Monday – Friday or email them: enquiries@csiro.au

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BAILLIEU’S BITTER SWILL

Monday 29th April 2012
The government’s announcement that it will spend $1.8M to survey for endangered wildlife in Eastern Victoria is like throwing a teaspoon of sugar into a cauldron of bitter swill.

Environment East Gippsland says that this shines the spotlight on the environmental hypocrisy of the Baillieu government.

“The government might be offering $1.8M to look for endangered wildlife but it continues to prop up the logging of its forested habitat to the tune of over $50M a year”. (see VicForests’ Annual Report) said Jill Redwood from Environment East Gippsland.

“Mr Baillieu is going to send biologists out to look for endangered wildlife, while at the same time he is weakening the current environmental laws so that critical habitat can be legally clearfell logged”.

“Recently, most of the Special Protection Zones that had been in place since the 1990s were handed to the logging industry”, said Jill Redwood. “These now de-listed Protection Zones were to preserve the known habitat of the same rare animals they will be looking for. They are in fact being clearfelled right now without any wildlife surveys having been carried out in them”.

“This Baillieu/National Party government is shameless about its plans to gut the environment and the laws that have protected it. Everyone in this state should be outraged”.

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Rare Potoroos - search and destroy

The discovery by VicForests contracted surveyors of the endangered Long-footed Potoroo (LFP) only kilometers from its known range is not at all surprising. Bemm River and its ‘epicentre’ Bellbird Creek are very close by.

What is surprising is VicForests’ claim to be looking after these rare animals, after the Minister in charge of logging, Peter Walsh, recently set about changing the laws so that it can continue to clearfell the forest habitat of these animals even where detected.

VicForests was forced to carry out pre-logging wildlife surveys when they lost the 2010 Supreme Court battle that cost them in the order of $2 million to argue against. Up until this time, government approved clearfelling of prime threatened wildlife habitat had gone on relentlessly and in ignorance of what was being destroyed.

Environment East Gippsland has been trying to obtain VicForests survey data under Freedom of Information for almost a year now.

The home range of the LFP is still very small in relation to the range of most of our wildlife. They occupy the same type of rich wet forests that the logging industry has been targeting for over 50 years. The Potoroo seems to survive in the small areas that remain unlogged, but where found the government only protects a nearby gully or stream buffer - NOT the forest proper where it was found.

The LFP eats exclusively fungi. This is provided by a healthy mature forest with diverse understory and plant/fungi associations. It needs slopes, ridges and gullies through the year.

If a Potoroo is found passing through logged regrowth adjoining a mature forest it doesn’t mean they can survive and flourish in thin regrowth after a healthy mature forest is clearfelled. Yet this is implied by VicForests.

In the past, where we have found LFPs, VicForests has refused to protect the detection site, but rather protects an area off to the side where it won't prevent logging occurring. But this isn't the 'best habitat', just convenient for the logging industry and VicForests.

Jill

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This short video explains how forests and our climate are so closely connected. Forests are our greatest land based carbon stores, shade the earth, moderate our climate and provide clouds and rainfall.

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