Annie Philips
Living in Hobart I witness the rather sobering daily event of scores of laden log trucks thundering down the main street of town. It's a continual reminder to all those who care about the environment of current Tasmanian forestry policy: namely the accelerated clear-felling of old-growth forests and the poisoning of forest inhabitants.
The 4000 people who marched in the Styx forest in July 2003 and the 10-15,000 in Hobart in March this year reflect the level of concern in the community and the growing national and international awareness of current Tasmanian forestry practices. The protection of remaining Tasmanian old-growth forests from clear-felling is possibly the biggest national environmental issue on the agenda leading into the next federal election.
Recent Tasmanian governments (both Coalition and Labor) and industry (namely Gunns Limited) are supported by the federal government under the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA), which lifted the lid on export woodchip quotas and heralded a proliferation of the "clear-fell, burn, sow" forest management style.
Currently around 15,000 hectares of state forest is logged every year, approximately 50% by clear-felling. This represents one of the highest rates of land clearing in the developed world. Clear-felling predominantly occurs in the state's wet forests, many of which have high conservation significance such as the Styx Valley and the Tarkine.
Only 13% of tall old-growth eucalyptus regnans and 14% of tall old-growth eucalyptus obliqua remain in Tasmania. Astonishingly, over 90% of logged native forest becomes woodchips. Tasmania exports more than twice the volume of woodchips than all other states combined (over five million tonnes in 2000).
Once clear-felled, forests are fire-bombed from the air. Tasmanian fauna are then indiscriminately poisoned with 1080-soaked carrots in clear-felled coupes. The use of 1080 is the cheapest method of killing native fauna that eat emerging seedlings in the regenerated forest or plantation. Often non-target animals are also killed.
In the face of national environmental legislation (RFAs are excluded from the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act), the habitat of threatened species such as the wedge-tailed eagle and the giant freshwater crayfish has been destroyed. Tasmanian biodiversity is being sacrificed as we turn into the monoculture plantation state.
As such disturbing state and federal policy results in the rapid demise of unique and irreplaceable ecosystems, one has to question political and industry motivation. What could possibly drive such a destructive industry when there are so many good alternatives to clear-felling old-growth forests? In a society where short-term economic gain often supercedes a more sophisticated longterm approach to the management of natural resource, the official industry answer is money and jobs.
The reality is that just a few people, Gunns Limited shareholders included, are benefiting. While Gunns Limited sells woodchips for between $80 and $160 per tonne, Tasmania receives between $7 and $14 per tonne in royalties for pulpwood. Tasmania is arguably making a loss on the practice while receiving Commonwealth subsidisation.
The reality is that due to automation, rationalisation and company take-overs, many jobs have been lost despite an increase in forest logging. In fact thousands of jobs in timber manufacturing have been shed in the last two decades.
Tasmanian timbers are increasingly providing manufacturing opportunities in Asia as we continue to export record amounts of unprocessed or barely processed forest products, such as woodchips and whole logs.
Most forestry jobs do not rely on old-growth forests — according to Timber Workers for Forests, just 325 people are employed in old-growth logging. In contrast, the tourism industry employs some 22,000 people.
We need to stop the current short-sighted destruction of the forests and recognise the real value of such a precious resource. While protecting forests of high conservation value currently earmarked for logging, an internationally competitive timber industry could flourish using existing plantations and low volumes of our specialty timbers.
Tasmanian wildlife already suffers from habitat loss, introduced species and disease. Thousands more don't need to be poisoned with 1080. The protection of our best remaining old-growth forest would support the "clean, green" image that the state government is promoting.
Flourishing tourism in our intact forests has the potential to provide many more jobs than logging old-growth forests and converting them to bland ecosystems. Community concern has never been greater and the alternatives are clear. The time is right to act to protect our forests and their inhabitants from greed and short-sighted policy.
From Green Left Weekly, July 7, 2004.
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