WA General Assembly Resolution #261: Rainforest Protection Act (Category: Environmental; Industry Affected: Woodchipping) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.
Argument: Affirming the purpose of GAR #261, “Rainforest Protection Act”, namely to protect and preserve tropical rainforests,
Nevertheless believing that the flaws present in the target resolution necessitate its repeal,
Disturbed by the target resolution’s ban on slash-and-burn agriculture in tropical rainforest areas, which fails to take into account that slash-and-burn agriculture:
a. can be practiced in an ecologically sustainable manner and only causes environmental damage when insufficient time is allowed for vegetation regrowth, and
b. is a necessity for subsistence farmers who would otherwise be faced with the prospect of starvation due to a lack of suitable farmland in forested areas,
Troubled by the target resolution’s ban on mineral extraction in tropical rainforest areas when it causes any surface ecosystem damage, which fails to take into account that such damage may only be temporary and that the land can be restored to equivalent land capacity through replanting and soil replacement after resource extraction is complete,
Distressed by the lack of an appeals process or even any established criteria for the Tropical Rainforest Protection Agency’s determination of logging quotas, which allows the Agency to arbitrarily restrict forestry industries in World Assembly member nations without any accountability,
The General Assembly,
Repeals GAR #261, “Rainforest Protection Act”.