“lutruwita has lost the vast majority of its old forests to native forest logging,” Rohan from Grassroots Action Network Tasmania (GRANT) said on January 22.
“This pillaging of the environment is creating severe consequences that affect us all — irrevocably damaging water catchments, destroying biodiversity, ruining carbon stocks and making communities more vulnerable to fire.”
Rohan was among a handful of activists who stopped logging in the West Kunanyi Range, part of the Wellington Range. He attached himself to several machines while suspended from a mature gum tree and stopped the morning’s work.
The logging coupe lies within the drinking catchment for nipaluna/Hobart, and has never been logged industrially before.
This action was part of a campaign “20 days of action in defence of lutruwita” being promoted by Paraná Elder Uncle Jim Everett (puralia meenamatta).
Rohan said he was responding to Uncle Jim’s call to “protect native forests and respect traditional law in Country”.
“The law of the land requires us to be in right relationship with Country. It’s more than just ending native forest logging and the immense carbon pollution that contributes to the climate and ecological crisis: it’s about completely rethinking our relationship with the more-than-human world."
Most of the product from logging native forests is woodchips for export to Asia.
The devastation of lutruwita’s ecosystems has not come about by chance, GRANT said, adding it is the result of capitalism and colonialism that “violently controls every aspect of our lives”.
“These structures fuel a worldview that divides humanity from the rest of the living world, frame the environment and ourselves as resources to be exploited and seek always some new ‘horizon’ for ‘growth’.
“This mindset is that of a conqueror — a disconnect from place and people.”
Rohan believes the forests, river and moss have a “right to life”. “Entering into right relationship is about acknowledging all life in Country and building respectful relationships with the people and land around us.
“That is why I am doing this action: to stop the senseless destruction of this sacred living Country.”
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