Tasmania's Pristine Rainforest to Be Logged

CANBERRA, Australia, October 23, 2003 (ENS) - Australians are taking sides in a battle over industrial logging in forests located on the island state of Tasmania, including the country's largest temperate rainforest. More than 30 conservation organizations from across Australia have agreed to a special focus on what they call "the crisis confronting Tasmanian forests," while the federal and state governments are moving ahead with plans to allow logging.

At the 22nd National Forest Summit in Canberra October 11 and 12, the conservationists condemned Tasmania's decision to lift a 20 year logging moratorium on the greatest stretch of pristine temperate rainforest in Australia. It is "the final straw in a string of appalling past decisions" including the logging of the world's largest hardwood trees such as those in the Styx Valley of the Giants, they said.

"The Tasmanian and federal governments have let the logging industry in Tasmania run out of control," said Lindsay Hesketh of the Australian Conservation Foundation. "They must increase the protection and management of old growth and high conservation value forests."

"The state government's decision to open up to industrial logging the old growth forests and rainforests at the very heart of the Tarkine wilderness area is a short sighted sell out of a precious community asset," Hesketh said.

The Tarkine Wilderness is situated in the northwestern corner of Tasmania and is largely undisturbed wilderness covering more than 350,000 hectares, including Australia's largest area of undisturbed rainforest.

In June, Paul Lennon, Tasmanian Deputy Premier and Minister for Economic Development, Energy and Resources, announced that the government would permit logging of deep red myrtle in the Savage River pipeline corridor deep in the heart of the Tarkine. This pipeline is used by Australian Bulk Minerals to transfer their product from mine to port for shipment.

Savage River Pipeline through the Tarkine Wilderness, Tasmania (Photo by Geoff Law courtesy The Wilderness Society)

In the cool, moist air of the Tarkine's temperate rainforest, the Wilderness Society says, there are forest giants such as the myrtle beech Nothofagus cunninghamii, the ancient Huon pine, and the honey producing leatherwood tree Eucryphia Lucida - and on the forest floor the rare butterfly orchid Sarcochilus australis and lush tree ferns Dicksonia antarctica are found.

With its wild rivers, magnesite karst systems, and wilderness inhabited by rare and endangered species, the Tarkine has been listed on the Register of the National Estate. Although a national park proposal was gazetted in 1997, it has never been formalized.

In a speech in the Australian Senate on Tuesday, Green Party Senator Bob Brown, who represents Tasmania, said the logging of his state is a disgrace. "Tasmania’s old growth forests, amongst the richest carbon banks on the planet, are daily trucked through the streets of Hobart and Launceston on their way to the woodchip mills - 150,000 log truck loads this year. "

Under the authority of Premier John Howard, said Brown, "trees so big that only one will fit on the back of a B-double truck are being cut in record numbers, their ecosystems destroyed by hot regeneration fires and the local wildlife poisoned with 1080."

The company doing the logging, Gunns Pty Ltd, "is soaring on the Sydney Stock Exchange at the illegal expense of the habitat of rare and endangered species like the tiger quoll, wedgetailed eagle and white goshawk," Brown said. "It would be far better if solar panels rather than woodchip stocks were lighting up the stock markets."

But a shareholders' resolution proposed at a Gunns extraordinary general meeting held August 29 that would have prohibited the company from logging in areas of high conservation value such as the Tarkine, was overwhelming defeated. Coordinated by the Wilderness Society, the resolution was supported by less than one percent of the shareholders.

Gunns Executive Chairman John Gay said in a statement after the vote that the Board of Gunns believes "this action was a publicity stunt by the Wilderness Society staged for political purposes in an attempt to attack a well performing and legitimate Tasmanian business."

Tasmanian Premier Jim Bacon (Photo courtesy Office of the Premier)

Tasmanian Resources Minister Lennon said in a statement October 2, “Managing this phaseout demands a compromise. Maintaining a contractual supply of high quality sawlog and veneer timber will involve additional reliance on - and investment in - hardwood plantations."

“The challenge for the greens is to accept this compromise," Lennon said.

But these policies fall far short of what the conservationists want to see. "The Premier ignored the first Tasmania Together goal to end clearfelling of high conservation value old growth forests such as the Styx and Tarkine and today indicated the government may cease clearfelling of unprotected old growth forest by around the time there’s none left," said Mike Noble, The Wilderness Society’s Tasmanian forest campaigner. "This is a pathetic copout that snubs community attitudes in favor of big business," he said.

At the summit, it was also acknowledged that land management practices in biodiversity rich dry forest regions, particularly on private land, must improve.

The federal government is emphasizing the voluntary approach to forest conservation, financially supporting private owners of Tasmanian forested lands who sign conservation covenants, voluntary agreements between a landowner and the Tasmanian government or a conservation organization.

"Conservation covenants provide permanent protection for forests, native plants and animals on private property, said Australian Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation Senator Ian Macdonald, making the announcement of A$500,000 earmarked for Tasmanian landowners on Wednesday.

More than 25,000 hectares (96.5 square miles) of Tasmania's forests will now be protected under conservation covenants.

But conservationists view this area as small compared to the vast stretches of pristine forests now vulnerable to logging. "These decisions will directly affect the future survival of many species vulnerable to extinction due to habitat loss," said Gavin McFadzean of the Wilderness Society.

"The tragic fate of the Tasmanian tiger may well now be repeated with other species such as the Tasmanian devil, bettong, quoll, and the unique Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle," he said.

Tasmanian Resources Minister Lennon said that Tasmania should not follow the lead of the state of Western Australia which lost a great many jobs recently when it declared old growth forests off limits to logging. “Despite the claims of the Green opposition, said Lennon, "97 percent of today’s old growth forests will still be standing tall in 2010 and – unlike Western Australia’s disastrous experience – not a single job should be lost."