The Liberal Government has officially committed to working on a bilateral agreement that will continue native forest logging into the future. In a biodiversity and climate crisis, the Liberals should be ending native forest logging, not allowing continued forest destruction.
The Federal Government’s new environment laws will change the way logging in native forests is assessed, apparently with the aim of improving sustainability. But the state and federal governments have revealed their real intention to continue the logging of precious native habitat, with the announcement they are planning to accredit the Forest Practices Authority as an assessor.
Despite their greenwash, the Forest Practices Authority is renowned for rubber-stamping the destruction of native forests and threatened species’ habitat. The Forest Practices Authority cannot be trusted to adequately assess the environmental impacts of logging. It would allow the destruction that has been conducted under the failed Regional Forest Agreement to continue.
In a biodiversity and climate crisis, native forest logging simply shouldn’t continue. Tasmania’s native forests are home to endangered species and globally significant carbon stores. The Liberals should be taking this opportunity to end native forest logging, not conspiring with their federal counterparts to allow it to continue.
