News that parts of the forestry industry have responded to market pressure and loss of social licence by conceding a small reduction in their logging of native forests is welcome. While it’s a step in the right direction, the Greens will continue to fight for a complete end to native forest logging on all public land.
The fact industry players are feeling pressure from Aboriginal people, conservationists and the wider community to protect Tasmania’s biodiversity and carbon stores is no surprise. The industry has recently been exposed for selling Tasmanian native forest whole logs to sawmillers in Victoria. Victorian and Tasmanian taxpayers were rightly outraged.
The industry’s statement that they’re prepared to get out of logging ‘old-growth’ forests, as they define them, would impact just a minuscule proportion of Forestry Tasmania’s total native forest estate that is open for clear-felling.
With now overwhelming pressures on biodiversity, and climate heating, Tasmania’s native forests must be left intact to protect swift parrots, masked owls, and so many other special and endangered creatures.
The Greens stand with Tasmanians, and a national coalition of environment groups, calling for an end to native forest logging. Keeping our carbon-storing and habitat-providing native forests in the ground is the future we need.
The native forest industry is already in deep decline. If they really want to clean up their image, then exiting native forests and completing the switch to plantation forests is what will do it.
With current contracts for native forest logging ending on July 1 next year, now is the time for the Liberal Government to end native forest logging completely.
