Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Forests spokesperson
In a climate and biodiversity crisis, there is no case for native forest logging.
The Greens applaud Bob Brown Foundation’s injunction to stop Forestry Tasmania destroying the feeding and breeding trees essential to Tasmania’s critically endangered Swift parrot.
If granted, it would mean an end to logging the coupes of forest vital to the Swift parrot for nesting and for feeding on the nectar of its favoured eucalypt blossoms. This is a no brainer.
Thousands of hectares of forests that include old growth are being logged each year. This is critical habitat for rare, threatened and endangered species and it can’t be justified.
Resources Minister, Guy Barnett, has overseen the government’s forestry GBE’s absolute incapacity to get Forest Stewardship Certification, the escalation of logging through the COVID-19 lockdown, and the continued driving of Tasmania’s native species to extinction.
These forests are home to not only the critically endangered Swift parrot, but also Masked owls, Tasmanian devils, Giant freshwater crayfish and Wedge-tailed eagles – among many others.
Protection is the only way, in a climate and biodiversity emergency, to manage Tasmania’s biodiverse, carbon-rich forests.