Fiona Scarff

"Conflict over land use in Australian forests has a long history," explained John Dargavel, an academic who has made a study of forest history. "Early tensions between foresters and farmers wanting to clear land have given way to a new debate. Now conservationists clash with foresters over the conflicting goals of conservation and timber production. The Australian timber industry is strongly based on harvesting in native forests rather than plantations - and most native forests are on government land. So, the longstanding conflicts over forest use in Australia have led to over 70 government inquiries and other processes to try to resolve them."

There is a direct conflict in the forest itself - where harvesting operations conflict with conservation values. Another, subtler tension pervades forest administration at the government policy level, where decisions can be influenced by competing conservation and production interests.

The native forests of southwestern Australia are dominated by a range of eucalypt species, including jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata), karri (E. diversicolor), marri (E. calophylla), and wandoo (E. wandoo). The forests comprise a range of vegetation types, from wet sclerophyll forest through to drier woodlands, interspersed with wetlands and other ecosystems. An assessment of forest ecosystems identified over 2.6 million hectares of forests, including 1.8 million hectares of jarrah, a commercially harvested timber species. When forest areas outside the survey boundaries are taken into account, the full extent of forest ecosystems exceeds these figures. The native forests are managed for multiple uses, so conservation and timber are just two of many interests. Traditional Aboriginal owners, water resource managers and bee keepers share the forest with bauxite mining, tourism and a wildflower industry. But no two groups have so polarized the community and ignited public opinion as the timber industry and the conservation lobby.

The winds of change are blowing through the southwest forests, where public debate is reshaping the way forests are managed. Since the forests are publicly owned, community debate over the best way to balance the demands of different land uses is vigorous. Clashes over land use, in particular tracts of forest, are not uncommon.