A protest in Swift Parrot habitat suffering logging remains in place for the second day. The current native forest occupation is in the Eastern Tiers of Tasmania, where a defiant forest defender is perched in a tree platform 30 metres off the ground. All logging operations in this forest since Wednesday have stopped and now gives Premier Rockliff the opportunity to remove the loggers and protect the habitat.
“It was in 2015 that the IUCN recommended all Swift Parrot habitat on public lands be placed in secure conservation reserves. But it is the ongoing refusal by governments to stop the logging that wantonly fails to prevent the parrot’s path to extinction,” said Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaigns Manager Jenny Weber.
“A week of protests by forest defenders against the ongoing destruction of the remaining native forests of Tasmania has highlighted a forest crisis. There are so few native forests left in the world. So many species are on the brink of extinction.
The forests occupied by forest defenders today are a known breeding ground of the critically endangered Swift parrot and we are here today to protect this last precious remnant of their habitat. The archaic practice of native forest devastation for woodchips has to stop,” said Jenny Weber.
Our citizen science survey in these forests last summer recorded the critically endangered parrots, we reported this to Premier Rockliff and he still oversees the logging of these nurseries.
Two protesters have already been arrested this week. One atop a cable logger in another Swift parrot habitat forest near Dover and the other in the spectacular tall old growth forests of the southern central highlands.
“More arrests are expected today and many more to follow. These actions will not stop until we see an end to the destruction of native forests across Australia. The forest defenders on the ground out here brave the cold, the rain, sleepless nights and aggressive behaviour by visitors in the night who want to see these forests destroyed. But we will continue protecting these places, for as long as we have breath,” said Bob Brown Foundation native forests campaign organiser Dr Searle.
“Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek says they want zero extinctions. The first step here in Tasmania is to end native forest destruction, remove logging machinery from all Swift parrot habitat and the habitats for all threatened species in Tasmania,“ said Dr Searle.
