Forest war erupts over 40,000ha bombshell
Battlelines have been drawn in one Australian state where a heated war is brewing over a 40,000-hectare bombshell.
Battlelines have been drawn in Tasmania where a heated war is brewing over the state’s forests.
The state has the last Liberal government left standing in Australia and the party has raised eyebrows with a plan to boost timber supply by making an extra 40,000 hectares of native forest — earmarked for protection more than a decade ago — available for logging.
The “shocking” move has drawn widespread backlash from conservationists to forest growers and processors, including the Tasmanian Forest Products Association who said it was “disappointed” the industry was being “used” by premier Jeremy Rockliff ahead of a state election next month.
The 40,000 hectares are part of a “peace deal” signed between state and federal government in 2012 under Julia Gillard that signified an end to the bitter “forest wars”.
The agreement came after both governments legislate the protection of 356,000 hectares of highly-valued Tasmanian forests.
This agreement was effectively torn up by the incoming state Liberal government, which designated the area as a Future Potential Production Forest (FPPF).
Until now, these FPPF forests - which include parts of the Tarkine and Ben Lomond national parks - have remained untouched by logging.
Responses to the announcement reveal both conservationists and loggers are worried the move will spark another bitter conflict and potential boycotts from consumers.
“The Tasmanian Forest Products Association is disappointed our industry has been used as a political football by the Liberal Party today,” a statement from TFPA chief executive Nick Steel read.
“The Liberals have been in government for a decade and could have solved our wood supply issue at any time.
“But instead, they have decided to make it an election issue.”
The TFPA is calling for a full examination of the land, with input from a range of groups – including forestry, Aboriginal bodies and environmental agencies.
“We look forward to working with the next elected government on how we can grow forestry and actively manage this land,” Mr Steel said.
The Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff — whose minority liberal government is heading to an early election next month — said it was the right time to access these forests.
“Following our election in 2014, we rescued 356,000ha of production native forest from being permanently locked up, and set it aside in a ‘wood bank’ – the FPPF – for a rainy day,” Mr Rockliff told The Australian.
“That rainy day has now arrived,” he said.
Former Liberal turned independent state MP John Tucker said the Liberal move would be a backwards step.
“The Premier’s plan to restart the Tasmanian forest wars will not deliver one extra log to any mill in Tasmania,” he told the Mercury.
“Instead, it will put every job in the native forest sector at risk by inviting intervention of the major retailers who control the industries supply line.
He said the announcement was a “cruel hoax” designed to deceive voters ahead of the state election.
The Labor Party said it would announce its forestry policy in the coming days.
Former Greens leader Bob Brown said his conservation foundation was “defiant” in the face of the “disgusting breach of faith”.
“The Liberal’s election threat to log 40,000 hectares of forests that were promised protection is a disgusting breach of faith and will bring condemnation on Tasmania,” he said in a statement.
“Flattening and incinerating our forests and exporting most of the extracted logs as woodchips for products much of which will end up in rubbish tips in the northern hemisphere, is bizarre and culpable behaviour by the Liberals.”
Dr Brown called on the federal government to step in and ban the contentious practice, after both Victoria and Western Australia have done so.
“Prime Minister Albanese should intervene and save the forests or, at least, get back the $58 million of taxpayers’ money spent to protect the forests,” Dr Brown said.
Dr Brown and several other conservationists were recently arrested in an ongoing protest in a logging coupe in the Styx Valley in Tasmania.
The Styx Valley is known colloquially as the “Valley of Giants” and is home to some of the tallest trees in the world, according to the Wilderness Society.
On Friday Tasmanian resource minister Fellix Ellis announced the Liberals would also extend existing native wood supply contracts out to 2024 to provide “certainty” for local sawmillers.
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