This morning, on Valentine’s Day 2023, fifteen people are showing their commitment to the critically endangered Swift Parrots and their breeding forests by holding a protest in nesting habitat being logged. Four people are currently locked onto logging machinery, defending the nesting habitat of the parrot.
“While logging machines continue to demolish habitat for the critically endangered species, citizens are highlighting the loss right now of Swift Parrot habitat. We are sending out the message that Swift Parrots need more loving, they need secure protection from logging,” said campaign manager for Bob Brown Foundation, Jenny Weber.
“This is the third attempt by the Bob Brown Foundation in the last two weeks to call for urgent protection for this Swift Parrot habitat on the foothills of Mt Tongatabu. Again today, a group of citizens are defending the swift parrot habitat, while the logging industry and Premier Rockliff fail to prevent the extinction of the fastest parrots on Earth,” Jenny Weber said.
“Fighting extinction begins with ending native forest logging and the clearing of habitat for rare and endangered species. Logging of native forests in southern Tasmania has pushed the Swift Parrot to the brink of extinction,” Jenny Weber said.
“Our repeated letters to the responsible government agencies that can stop this logging have gone unanswered. Last week, the government managed Natural Value Atlas recognised the importance of a swift parrot nest found in this forest during one of Bob Brown Foundation’s citizen survey held last year,” Jenny Weber said.
“Security guards have recently been employed by the loggers while there is no protection for the Swift Parrot nesting habitat that continues to be logged unhindered. Spending money on security shows that the logging industry have destruction of Swift Parrot habitat to hide,” Jenny Weber said.
Six parrot-defending citizens have been arrested in these Mt Tongatabu forests in the past weeks, as they committed to defend the Swift Parrot and its homes from demolition.
