Save native forests

1990s

Donated by Peter Stanley

Museum of Australian Democracy Collection

The Campaign to Save Native Forests was a grassroots organisation formed in Perth in 1975 in response to the development of a woodchipping industry in the southwest forests of Western Australia.

The Manjimup woodchipping scheme attracted widespread interest and protest out of public concern for the karri forests of the region. However, it was not until 1992 that the Australian Government and all mainland state and territory governments signed the National Forest Policy Statement (NFPS) in an attempt to resolve continuing conflicts over logging and woodchipping of native forests. Tasmania signed the agreement in 1995.

The NFPS led to the creation of ten Regional Forest Agreements, which had the aim of safeguarding old-growth forests, wilderness and other natural and cultural values while enabling sustainable forest management outside of reserves.