Retail giant Harvey Norman has come under fire for their timber sourcing habits, with the company using timber from native Australian old growth forests as well as Indonesian rainforest timber in their furniture. Elizabeth McArthur reports.

Native Australian old growth forests logged for commercial gain. Image: rodbot

The ongoing campaign driven by activist group Markets for Change came to a head when three protesters recently scaled the Sydney Opera House to unravel a banner reading “No Harvey No- stop selling Aussie forest destruction.”

Louise Morris, campaigns manager at Markets for Change said, “From floor surveys we have conducted in Harvey Norman an average of 70% of the wood products found in their stores were Australian native forest wood products.”

Miss Morris maintains that, “It is the responsibility of retailers to implement procurement policies that rule out selling high conservation value Australian native forest products- instead moving to plantation based products.

“Well managed plantations are a viable alternative to logging of native old growth forests.

“Mixed specie plantations grown in appropriate areas are the perfect way to supply our wood and paper needs, while leaving native forests to be carbon and biodiversity stores and to act as watersheds, which is what they do best.”

In response to the campaign Gerry Harvey said, on ABC radio, “You know, I’m trying my best to use recycled timber or timber from plantations and not old forests.

“But every now and again something will slip through and I’ll be caught using timber from old forests, but it well could be timber that the Government in fact has told saw millers that they can actually – they can take it. They’ve got a certificate to take it.

“So it’s a little bit dicey sometimes.”

However Mr. Harvey’s claims have been questioned by Get Up who recently posted on their website, “the reality is – Harvey Norman has contracts with loggers in Tasmania, NSW, Victoria and WA to source wood from our most precious native forests.

“Harvey Norman has started using industry spin and a dodgy industry certification scheme to try and deflect mounting public pressure and protests.”

Get Up is continuing to ask the public to sign a petition with the goal of Harvey Norman agreeing not to source timber for high conservation value forests.

They aim to circulate the petition to every Harvey Norman store in Australia, in the hope that franchise owners will take notice even if the larger company doesn’t change their policy.

Harvey Norman is not the only retailer who sources material from high conservation value forests; earlier this year envelopes from Kmart were found to contain Indonesian rainforest wood.

When asked why Harvey Norman was specifically targeted for the campaign Ms Morris said, “Harvey Norman was chosen as a campaign focus as they are Australia’s largest furniture and electrical retailer, with stores in other countries as well.

“The Harvey Norman campaign is an ongoing one whereby we are working to the aim of Harvey Norman implementing procurement policies that rule out the selling of native forests products in their stores.”

With a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions coming from meat production there is a push for an alternative that is more sustainable. Anne Winther Rasmussen reports from Holland on the use insects as a replacement for red meat.

One woman in Sweden has found a way to give back to the earth with a controversial system that turns your body into compost. Filmed and edited by Nicole Cairns Law Sau Ying Anokhee Shah.

With a vast amount of wilderness Norway is reaping benefits from a sustainable and environmentally-friendly expanding ecotourism industry. Hugo Pilon-Larose has the story. Produced by Dave Fanner, Hugo Pilon-Larose and Kimberly Ivany.

Denmark is one of the nosiest Scandinavian countries with 70 per cent of the population suffering from noise pollution. Dario Bosio documents one woman’s experience in Copenhagen.

A small island in Denmark became CO₂ -neutral in less than ten years. Several bigger cities in Denmark now try to accomplish the same. Miriam Ønya reports.

Denmark’s capital Copenhagen wants to be the CO₂  neutral by 2025. But transport pollution is a major contributer to greenhouse gas emissions. Linda Arponen, Liisi Mölder and Asta Smagurauskaite report on the ways Denmark is searching to reduce traffic pollution.

A proposal by university professor Dr John Hadley to grant endangered animals property rights has caused a number of farmers groups and ecologists to react. Jamesina McLeod reports.

Some Australians are taking their commitment to the environment to the grave, opting for eco-friendly burials where headstones are replaced by GPS coordinates. Elizabeth Pratt reports.

Green burials where graves are marked by GPS coordinates instead of a headstone. Image: Susannah Singh.

Hidden in the bushland of Lismore is a piece of rough scrubland. It’s a serene spot surrounded by gum trees, where koalas are frequent visitors and the perfume of eucalyptus leaves drifts in the air.

But unlike other bushland parks in NSW, you’re not likely to find a family settling down for a picnic to spot the koalas. You’re more likely to see them walking around staring intently at a handheld GPS looking for a grave.

In the latest environmental trend, parks like this are becoming natural burial grounds where in place of a headstone, families use a device like a mobile phone to pinpoint the location where their loved one is buried.

“It’s the natural and original way that people got buried. They weren’t in a box, they weren’t in a concrete crypt, they didn’t have a big marker, they weren’t in a row; they were randomly placed in the earth.”

Zenith Virago is the founder of the Natural Death Centre, an organisation that has operated in Byron Bay for the past 15 years. The centre facilitates natural burials for those wishing to minimise their impact on the environment at the time of their death by following eco burial guidelines.

“You’re not using plastic in the coffin, you’re using a cardboard coffin…a recyclable substance, or you can be buried in a shroud with permission from the health department… all of that reduces the amount of waste you’re using,” Virago says.

The Australasian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association defines natural burials as “the act of returning the body as naturally as possible to the earth”. This is achieved without the use of cremation, which can generate up to 160kg of greenhouse gasses per corpse, and without the use of embalming liquids that often contain the carcinogenic chemical formaldehyde, that can leak into the soil once a body is buried.

Bodies buried within natural burial parks such as Lismore’s Bushland Cemetery are interred without the use of headstones or cement faces. This is to minimise the amount of fuel needed in the burial process and also to avoid disrupting the natural landscape. GPS navigation pinpoints the exact coordinates of the grave, made available to families so they can find the resting place of their deceased loved ones.

Few would argue that green burials aren’t a unique idea, with many believing they do have significant environmental benefits, but Greg Milgate, NSW Operations Manager of Gregory and Carr Funerals, isn’t too keen on the idea.

“You can’t say to someone ‘Dad’s laying just there’ if you haven’t got something that’s marked,” Milgate says.

“You’re going to have coordinates and you’re going to pace it out but how sure are you that you’re standing on the spot where your loved ones are buried? If I’ve got a head stone there I know it’s the head of the grave, I can be 100 per cent sure.”

Milgate has been in the funeral business for 20 years and has dealt with over 20,000 burials and cremations. Although not a strong advocate for Natural Burial Parks Milgate acknowledges the growing need within the funeral industry to preserve the environment.

“Everything we do we try and do so we don’t harm the environment,” he says, though is quick to admit green alternatives can often come with a hefty price tag.

“I will say to people ‘I can get you a cardboard coffin, but I can’t get you a cardboard coffin cheaper than a normal coffin’. If anything the cardboard is more expensive because it has to be treated to carry the weight.”

Milgate personally wishes to be cremated, a trend he has seen increase in the past decade; partially because people have less time, (and cremation is less time consuming), and partially because he thinks people are conscious of the rising costs of burial, with space becoming more of a problem.

“You get to a stage where you have so many millions of people in Australia and you have so many thousands dying every year, you’re going to run out of space to bury them eventually,” he says.

Using already existing bushland to combat this problem has become the next viable step.

“The reason we actually started this bushland cemetery was simply because we had land available that we couldn’t use for any other purpose,” says Kris Whitney, Coordinator of Lismore Bushland Cemetery.

The land within the cemetery is home to a species of koala that was recently put on the endangered species list. This meant the land couldn’t be developed into a traditional lawn cemetery, and would need to be left as it was. Whitney believes this rough scrub landscape is part of the appeal of natural burial at the site.

“You’re left with the grass understorey and a tall structure of eucalyptus above that, so it becomes a nice open cemetery environment if you like,” he says.

“The reason people want to be buried like that is because they want to be buried in nature, so they want the nature to be omnipresent, they just want it to be natural,” Virago says.

Australia has natural burial sites in Lismore, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and most recently at Kemps Creek in Sydney. Although many in Australia are turning towards green alternatives, green burial is still considered an alternative funeral practice by many.

Jane Bravery of Lismore works in the funeral industry and is currently studying eco-cultural history. Since the Lismore Bushland Cemetery opened in 2008 Bravery says the response has been largely positive, but it is still considered alternative.

“It’s not a mainstream thing. It doesn’t appeal to everybody because not everybody would like having to walk through native bushland to find a plot.”

Bravery does believe that from an ecological perspective making use of land without harming the environment is a positive step forward.

“In observing the eco-burial guidelines it’s not destroying a piece of land. I think if we have to have cemeteries it’s a good alternative. It’s being able to use land that otherwise wouldn’t be able to be used, it saves claiming land and redeveloping land somewhere else,” she says.

Virago believes green burials not only have an appeal to those with an environmental conscience but also for people looking for a more personal, special experience for those who are left behind.

“People start to get dissatisfied with the experience and start to think, ‘there must be another way of doing this.’ So we slow it down, we build our own coffin, we drive it in our own car, we take the body home to spend some time with it, we have the ceremony in the park, we share food together and it is a very different experience, a very special way of saying goodbye to someone,” she says.

Ultimately, those in the funeral industry, whether operating from a traditional or eco-friendly stand point, are in agreement that any burial process that fulfils the desire of the deceased to return to the earth in the most natural of ways, can only be a positive thing.

“We’re here to provide people with what they want,” Milgate says. As a funeral director he believes his role is to assist in disposing of the mortal remains in a way that would have been favoured by the deceased.

“It [the grave] is the tent that houses the soul. The soul has gone on to the next life; to heaven, to hell, whatever you believe. The tent that houses the soul is all you reverently dispose of. And that’s what we say we do, we are reverently disposing of the mortal remains,” he says.

At face value it is extremely hard to believe that buried beneath the gum trees and wild grasses of Lismore Bushland cemetery are 33 graves. But in talking to those who have ever come across the site, it is apparent that its natural, unruly appearance is part of its appeal in bringing beauty to an otherwise sad time.

“It’s satisfying to assist people at that time to create something that’s beautiful, that makes a difference, that transforms the sadness into a way of celebrating their relationship with someone,” Virago says.

“When you look back, you think about them being buried, laying under that tree…and that’s better than being under a bit of concrete in a row. It’s not rocket science.”

The number of indigenous fishermen on the NSW south coast has fallen to just eight and the 125 year old tradition is now in danger of disappearing. Daniel Walsh writes.

Current fishing laws could mean a 125 year old Indigenous fishing tradition may be in danger of disappearing. Image: Túrelio, Wikimedia commons

At dawn most mornings, you’ll find fisherman Craig Nye sitting amongst the dunes of Barlings Beach on the south coast of NSW. He braves the morning chill to hunt mullet, garfish, or if he’s lucky, whiting.

His eyes scour the water for a flash of movement, a glint of silver underbelly, a churning or splash, darting across the surface with the skill and knowledge that’s been running through his family for some 40,000 years.

They say all it takes is for one of those fish to smile, and Nye will easily find them.

The mullet usually run along the Eurobodalla Nature Coast in early April, so it’s into Nye’s tiny rowboat to head across Broulee Bay. If he was after lobster or abalone, he’d be straight off the side of the boat with nothing but a facemask. For today though, patience, a keen pair of eyes and a hand sown net are the tools of the trade.

Nye skilfully anticipates the pull and drag of the catch, and before long the net is swarming with fish. The haul is quickly brought in to the beach to be put on ice and sent off for processing.

And despite five generations that have passed since his ancestor Francis Butler first fished on the far south coast of NSW, the only thing Nye does differently is drive to work in a ute; there’s still no motor on the boat, still no radar or sonar and Nye’s still out there every morning.

When asked whether he would do anything else for a living, Nye laughs. “Nah mate. I’ll always be fishing. I’ve got scales on me,” he says.

With or without scales, Nye is one of the last of a dying breed. Indigenous fishermen say they are being forced to give up their traditions and cultures by stringent fishing laws and over policing.

Where there were once 40 or 50 licensed Koori (Indigenous Australians in NSW) fishermen between Batemans Bay and the Victorian border, there are now only eight on the 320 kilometres of coastline.

Nye’s father, Andrew ‘Sam’ Nye, and Francis’ grandson, Tom Butler, are respected local Aboriginal elders, and both agree that current laws make it near impossible for Aboriginal people to teach younger generations about traditional fishing methods.

Currently only crew members officially endorsed and recognised as crew can be involved in any commercial fishing activity. “Under these licensing laws, the young fellas who are curious about what their uncle or their dad is doing can’t go anywhere near the boat,” Nye says. “They can’t learn how to fish or be taught how to fish because we get fined for having illegal crew. They’re not allowed to get in the boat, pull on the nets or row the boat; you can even get done for sitting up here [in the sand dunes] and spotting the fish.”

Butler explains that having family members involved in the fishing activity does not allow extra fish to be caught, but is simply part of Aboriginal culture.

“If there’s extra people helping to pull our nets in, it doesn’t mean we catch extra fish, it just makes things easier for everyone,” he says. “The concepts of family and kinship are such a huge part of being Aboriginal, and you’ll never break those family ties, you’ll just drive the Kooris out of the industry.”

Also affecting indigenous fishing is the nature of licensing and quota systems, which Nye believes does not account for the seasonal nature of Aboriginal fishing.

“We have never fished according to quotas, we fish according to the actual fishing seasons, which is more environmentally friendly than just targeting one species,” he says. “When Fisheries started to divide the catches into certain species and started to sell the property rights, the boys can’t fill the quotas because they’re not chasing one species and overfishing it, so they can’t afford a licence for each species, and now there’s no one left.”

Those who have quit the industry, says Nye, are now on the dole.

According to the Indigenous Fisheries Strategy and Implementation Plan, which was drafted in 2002, a number of projects have been implemented to protect and enhance the Aboriginal cultural connection to fishing.

Legislation changes made in 2009 have seen the introduction of a definition of cultural fishing to the Fisheries Management Act, and the establishment of the Aboriginal Fisheries Advisory Council (AFAC), which held their first meeting in March.

Laura Best, Senior Manager at NSW Fisheries Resource Management, accepts there is cause for concern, but that there is also now greater recognition of the importance of fishing in Indigenous culture.

“The recognition of being able to pass on knowledge and ‘show the ropes’ so to speak is there, as there is some flexibility in terms of nominating crew and fishers,” says Miss Best. “But at the same time the rules that are in place are there for everyone, it doesn’t matter whether you’re Aboriginal or not, if you’re operating in that commercial sense the rules apply across the board.”

Close consultation with the newly formed AFAC will be critical to determining initiatives that help maintain Indigenous traditions whilst not disadvantaging anyone else in the commercial sector, says Best.

UTS Professor of Marine Ecology David Booth says a fine balance must be struck between the need to responsibly manage the ocean’s resources and fulfill commercial and cultural interests. In reference to Indigenous fishing, Professor Booth says: “There is the argument that local fishers looking after a smaller crop do a better job of sustaining their environment . . . but the larger enterprises also have the means to put more back into the environmental side of the fishery.”

Professor Booth explains that Indigenous people rightly hold grave concerns about losing their culture and traditional practices, but that their biggest threat is not from stringent rules and regulations.

“Over the next 80 years, the NSW south coast is going to be hardest hit by climate change,” he says. “And unless we find a way to curb the sea temperature increase that is caused by humans, a number of cold water species such as abalone, lobster and many types of fish are going to be pushed further south.”

Professor Booth continues, “. . . it would be an absolute shame to lose any part of Indigenous culture, but at the same time we’ve got to embrace the various forms of sustainable management. These methods aren’t designed to prevent people from fishing and pursuing their livelihoods, but as a means of making sure these practices can be continued for generations to come.”

The AFAC has a lot resting on it’s newly formed shoulders, with fisherman such as Nyes as well as NSW Department of Primary Industries hoping the council will provide a much needed platform for discussion and change.

As the south coast’s delegate to the AFAC, Danny Chapman is also Tom Butler and Craig Nye’s younger cousin.

Chapman recognises the potential that marine parks and crackdowns on illegal fishing could have on the rejuvenation of the south coast’s fishing resources. He is an advocate of specific Indigenous licenses to be established once stocks such as abalone have been replenished.

“Kooris have fished properly for years and years, and we’ve always managed the ocean responsibly, so why not give us a specific license to fish responsibly, and not just for special cultural events like we’ve got now and not just recreationally with very strict limits, but legitimately culturally,” he says.

Amidst concerns that an Indigenous cultural catch could be exploited by a burgeoning black market, Chapman was adamant any new allowance could be policed.

“We’ve got to step up and be responsible. It’s on us here,” he says. “If I see blackfellas (sic) going and selling our cultural catch, and exploiting our culture, then that’s when you prosecute them. That’s when you throw the book at them, and that’s when these ideas like circle sentencing come into it.”

Chapman has previously rejected notions of circle sentencing, where local Aboriginal elders are involved in the sentencing process, as a punishment of Indigenous people caught fishing illegally.

In order to encourage Aboriginal people to join the fishing industry, Chapman says efforts must be made at both the government and community levels, and says the AFAC is committed to achieving this.

“We’ll be recommending to Primary Industries a number of measures, and hopefully these will be brought in as soon as possible,” he said. “There’s got to be a ton of training, there’s got to be a relief on current Indigenous fisherman to let them teach their kids and grand kids, and there’s got to be a lot more awareness of our culture in general.”

“We want to stop the prosecutions; we want to be able to give elders the right to have a feed whenever they want to have a feed,” Chapman continued. “We want to give our young people the ability to go out and dive and fish for their entire family without being harassed and prosecuted, and we want to see Aboriginal people at the forefront of the industry”

No matter what happens over the next couple of years however, Nye will still be up in the dunes at Barlings Beach every morning. After all, the man’s got scales.