Bob Brown Foundation is calling for immediate protection of Tasmania’s native forests, as new scientific research identifies habitat protection as the highest priority action for critically endangered Swift Parrots. The most important action to ensure the survival of Swift Parrots is to end native forest logging in Tasmania, the only place on Earth where these parrots breed. As the findings of the research state, “the most consistent and influential driver of population decline remains the historic and ongoing loss of breeding habitat.”

“Forestry Tasmania has falsely claimed that sugar gliders are ‘the principal driver’ of Swift Parrot population decline. Wrong. It is time to remove Swift Parrot habitat from permanent logging zones and place it in secure conservation reserves. That was the IUCN recommendation in 2015, and logging continued to flatten Swift Parrot habitat. Now, the recommendation is renewed by leading Swift Parrot experts,” said Jenny Weber, Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaigns Director.

“This contemporary research recommends that ‘effective conservation will depend on protecting and retaining breeding habitat at landscape scales’. Leading Swift Parrot researchers with the Landscape Recovery Foundation have released a scientific study that adds critical evidence to the case that habitat loss is the main threat to the critically endangered Swift Parrot,” said Jenny Weber.

“The study strengthens the conclusion that Swift Parrots are under serious pressure from the loss and degradation of native forest habitat. The Federal and State Governments must urgently acknowledge this research and act to protect the remaining habitat this species needs to survive,” said Jenny Weber.

For the past decade, Forestry Tasmania has minimised logging’s impact on Swift Parrots, arguing that sugar gliders were the main driver of decline. Based on nest monitoring, camera traps, acoustic recorders, DNA sampling and direct observations, the researchers found no evidence that sugar gliders predated the nests they observed. Successful nesting occurred, even where sugar gliders were present.