National and Global Calls for Tasmania’s Forests, World Heritage not Woodchips

MEDIA RELEASE 01.09.09
NATIONAL AND GLOBAL CALLS FOR TASMANIA’S FORESTS, WORLD HERITAGE NOT WOODCHIPS.

Con­ser­va­tion­ists around the nation and globe are protest­ing today against the con­tin­u­ing log­ging and the wood chip­ping of world her­itage val­ued old growth forests of Tas­ma­nia.

Ban­ners read­ing “TASMANIA’S ANCIENT FORESTS, WORLD HERITAGE NOT WOODCHIPS” and “THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING” are being dis­played across the coun­try.

In Hobart 4 activists are dis­play­ing this mes­sage hang­ing from ropes off the roof of Par­lia­ment house.

In Mel­bourne the mes­sage has been paint­ed onto silos on Lan­ridge St. in Colling­wood.

In Can­ber­ra, the mes­sage is being dis­played on ban­ners unfurled from the roof of Fed­er­al Par­lia­ment house.

In Ade­laide a ban­ner dis­play­ing the mes­sage is hang­ing from build­ings in the CBD.

In New­cas­tle con­ser­va­tion­ists have con­struct­ed an 84 metre tree. Only trees greater than 84 metres qual­i­fy for pro­tec­tion as “giants”. Ancient trees that do not reach the 84 metre marked are felled and wood chipped.

Actions across the nation today are sup­port­ed by inter­na­tion­al actions in Scot­land, Ire­land, Switzer­land, Italy and oth­er sol­i­dar­i­ty actions are expect­ed to roll on through­out the day.

“The Fed­er­al and Tas­man­ian State Gov­ern­ments are con­tin­u­ing well into the 21st cen­tu­ry to dec­i­mate the very last unpro­tect­ed areas of world her­itage bor­dered old growth for­est. These last stands of old growth have been delib­er­ate­ly left out of the World Her­itage Area to facil­i­tate their destruc­tion.” Said spokesper­son Ed Hill.

“Despite a unan­i­mous IUCN (Inter­na­tion­al Union for Con­ser­va­tion and Nature) deci­sion of 21 coun­tries to extend exist­ing world her­itage bor­ders to include ancient forests locat­ed in the Upper Flo­ren­tine, Styx, Low­er Weld Val­ley and Mid­dle Huon, These forests are cur­rent­ly sub­ject to indus­tri­al scale clear felling.” Said spokesper­son Ed Hill.

“The nation wants an end to the envi­ron­men­tal mad­ness that is tak­ing place in Tasmania’s forests. The out­right van­dal­ism of old growth forests is a cli­mate dis­as­ter that is hap­pen­ing right now.” Said Mr Hill.

“ A recent report* by Pro­fes­sor Bren­dan Mack­ey and Aus­tralian ANU sci­en­tists states Tasmania’s tem­per­ate old growth forests store far more car­bon then was pre­vi­ous­ly thought. The study found that tem­per­ate forests store more car­bon than trop­i­cal forests and that Tasmania’s ancient forests are some of the most car­bon rich forests in the world.”

“The pro­tec­tion of Tasmania’s ancient forests is a sim­ple and effec­tive strat­e­gy to help reduce the effects of cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change and needs to be seri­ous­ly con­sid­ered by State and Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ments. The sci­ence on forests and cli­mate change is loud and clear yet the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to twid­dle their thumbs in the face of dan­ger­ous cli­mate change as old growth forests are cleared dai­ly.” Said Mr Hill.