Reuters AlertNet Lite - Aussie farmers launch tree-felling protest

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Aussie farmers launch tree-felling protest

03 Jul 2007 06:55:35 GMT
Source: Reuters

CANBERRA, July 3 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Australian farmers have begun cutting down protected trees on their properties to protest against strict land-clearing laws designed to help the country curb its rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Fed up with government restrictions on the use of their land, farmers from across the country this week began a civil disobedience campaign by felling a tree on each property and vowing to cut down more if restrictions were not relaxed.

"How would you feel if the government regulated to turn the third and fourth bedrooms ... into accommodation for homeless people, they didn't pay you any compensation for doing so, for having the use of those two bedrooms," Cobar farmer Alistair McRoberts told Australian radio on Tuesday.

McRoberts said a similar scenario was occurring for farmers, who were unable to use their land in an economically viable way because of strict landclearing laws aimed at preserving forests to soak up climate-changing carbon dioxide.

"You still pay the mortgage, you still pay the rent, but that's just bad luck," he said. We are just being hoodwinked to the highest order by the government and we need to talk about it."

Australia has the world's highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions and has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, criticising climate-change pact as too Europe-centric.

Prime Minister John Howard has called for a "New Kyoto" that will not harm the country's oil, coal and gas exports and bring in developing nations, such as India and China.

New figures on Tuesday showed the country was almost certain to exceed its greenhouse emissions target of 108 percent of 1990 levels by 2008-2012 set under Kyoto. Australia was part of the original negotiations that set targets for developed nations but the government later decided not to ratify the pact.

The latest figures show transport emissions have risen 4 percent in the year to May, pushing national greenhouse gas emissions to 107.9 percent of 1990 levels.

Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned farmers against breaking laws on land clearing or tree felling, saying this would constitute a criminal offence.

The Federal and New South Wales (NSW) state governments are already investigating whether one farmer in the Gwydir Valley, west of Sydney, bulldozed part of an internationally protected wetland and cleared it of vegetation.

McRoberts said his group represented a minority of farmers, but after more than a decade of talks with governments and environment groups, many farmers in the Gwydir Valley had not been properly compensated for locking away large tracts of land.

The government wanted to stop land clearing to allow vegetation to be used to offset carbon pollution from the country's vast coal mining industry, he said.

But NSW Environment Minister Phil Koperberg said tree-felling was illegal and his department would be investigating farmers suspected of supporting the campaign.

"We will decide what action, if any, can be and will be taken," he said.

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Last updated:Tue Jul 3 06:57:17 2007