About the Victorian Rainforest Network
The primary aim of the Victorian Rainforest Network (VRN) is to secure the effective conservation of rainforests on public land throughout Victoria by ensuring rainforests are adequately identified and protected from logging practices by appropriate buffers and/or permanent reservation.
VRN is an independent and politically unaligned network of rainforest enthusiasts, researchers and activists with a shared interest in rainforest conservation and education across Victoria.
VRN has made significant progress. Find out.
VRN draws from the experiences of the Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN)
rainforest campaign in the Otways.
See the Otway experience.
VRN is simply asking Government to follow their own rules.
A lot of the work VRN has engaged in, involves scrutinising the complex levels of bureaucratic planning that goes into developing buffers to protect rainforest from clearfell logging practices.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) already have planning processes in place to apply buffers to rainforest. However the conflict between conservation and logging, means progress to implement adequate buffers has historically been either extremely slow or stalled.
However VRN has been successfully in lobbying for increased rainforest protection in Victoria! See details.
Historically three major government rainforest management processes have failed to implement appropriate rainforest conservation buffers:
1. Code of Forest Practices:
Minimum buffer standards outlined in the Code of Forest Practices are not being met.
2. Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act
The Cool Temperate Rainforest plant community was recognised by the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act as a threatened plant community back in 1992. More than a decade later, the process to determine appropriate buffers still has not been completed.
3. Rainforest Sites of Significance
No formal decision has been made on the appropriate management (including adequate buffers) for Rainforest Sites of Significance in Victoria.
Archived site
Feedback
Contact VRN on vrn@vicrainforest.org or see the vicrainforest blog.