News

Dancing with the devil

In April of this year OREN representatives, at the invitation of Victorian Environment Minister Sherryl Garbutt attended an Independently facilitated forum "The Otway Reference Group". This forum, set up in response to violent incidents against conservationists in the Otway Forest, was facilitated by the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria. It included representatives from the DNRE, OREN, the timber industry and the forestry division of the CFMEU.

The decision to participate in these discussions lead to much soul searching on the part of OREN and local conservationists. The history of discussions between government and conservationists has not been positive. There is a general feeling that they are a waste of time and distract from more meaningful work. We were placed under considerable pressure to not enter into any dialogue, however after consultation with Otways residents and conservationists, OREN put together a small team to attend these discussions. OREN's team included representation from local

residents, pro-environment business interests, the Wye River action group, local unionists and OREN.

The Otway Reference Group first reached an agreed position to minimise the potential for violence in the Otways forests during the Easter period and this was achieved. Secondly, the group reached an agreed position to minimise the potential for violence until the end of the 1999/2000 logging season and this was achieved. The group has continued meeting in order to minimise the risk of violence occuring in the forest during the 2000/2001 logging season. In attempting to reach an agreed outcome the group recognises foremost that the community representatives have not and do not support clearfell logging in the Otway Ranges.

At this time both OREN and DNRE have been working within the terms of the agreement. However despite the best efforts of OREN to enter into the agreement under the spirit of cooperation the Government has not yet signed the agreement.