Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Forests spokesperson
The pressure is increasing for the Tasmanian Government to end the clearfelling and burning of native forests.
At COP26 in Glasgow overnight, leaders of 124 nations – including Australia – signed on to the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, committing to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.
The Declaration acknowledges the profound importance of forest and land carbon sinks in mitigating the worst impacts of global heating. It commits signatory nations to investing in forests and accelerating landscape restoration.
Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, signed on to the Declaration. It’s the first positive symbolic step on climate that he has taken, but it is significant.
Australia is now committed to halting forest loss and investing in restoration.
This means the Gutwein Government needs to act and end the unscientific madness of native forest logging, before 2030.
Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Safe Climate spokesperson
The Glasgow Declaration brings international focus on the critical importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature. The Declaration, which commits Australia to halt and reverse the loss of all forests, is part of the global collective effort needed to arrest unsustainable global heating.
Our endangered and threatened animals and plants rely on native forests for food and shelter. Every time an old forest is clearfelled and burned in Tasmania, vast quantities of carbon are released into the atmosphere, global heating is accelerated, and irreplaceable habitat is lost.
These forests take more than a century to recover the carbon that’s been lost through logging, burning and woodchipping.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has signed a call for “all leaders to join forces in a sustainable land use transition”.
The Tasmanian Government can no longer justify industrial native forest logging and burning, or the broadscale clearing of land. The Gutwein Government needs to overhaul our forestry, environment and planning laws and policies to ensure we can immediately transition to this sustainable land use.
At Glasgow, 124 world leaders have agreed on a pathway to a safer future. We welcome this Declaration, and expect the Premier to provide a statement of his government’s actions in response.