The draft management plan should be acknowledged for recognising and including some of the important factors that will determine the health and sustainability of our SW forest ecosystems over coming decades.
Whilst climate change and related impacts have been included, the plan falls well short of adequately accounting for those potential changes and their consequences, particularly with respect to biodiversity loss.
Biodiversity underpins the functioning of ecosystems, and the natural services provided are the very foundation of human health. As such, loss of biodiversity fundamentally compromises our efforts to improve and promote our health and wellbeing.
But this linkage is not made and human health is not mentioned in this document. This is a major oversight.