Violence and extinction in Tasmania's forests
Blog Post | Bob Brown, Christine Milne
Wednesday 22nd October 2008, 2:54pm
by TimHollo in
The last three days have been quite a revelation of exactly what's going on in Tasmania's forests. Regardless of the rhetoric of sensitive management of the forests, the real story is one of wantonly sending species towards extinction and viciously attacking those brave souls who stand up for protection.
On Monday, Bob Brown launched a new report by Margaret Blakers and Isobel Crawford into the state of the Swift Parrot (pictured). This amazing parrot, named in honour of its ability to cross Bass Strait in 3 hours (the ferry takes all night!), is listed as endangered, but, as the paper argues, should be upgraded to critically endangered as its population has recently crashed below 1000 pairs thanks to the logging of its only breeding grounds - the forests of south-eastern Tasmania.
Last Friday, Forestry Tasmania proudly announced that they would halt logging in the Wielangta coupes where the birds are nesting this season. Once the birds are gone, of course, Forestry will continue the slash and burn, destroying forever one of the last remaining nurseries for this beautiful little bird.
Bob made the point to Fran Kelly on Radio National breakfast on Monday that, with a species on the brink of extinction and the State Government doing nothing to protect its long-term future, the Federal Government has the right and the responsibility to step in and terminate the Regional Forests Agreement that covers the area preventing the Federal Government from taking any action to save thebird.
When challenged on the issue by Fran Kelly on this morning's breakfast, Peter Garrett ducked the issue, passing the buck to the Tasmanian Government:
"Under the RFA Act, it is the responsibility of the Tasmanian government to ensure that those management prescriptions that have been identified as necessary are undertaken and it's our expectation that that would be the case... The EPBC [Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation] Act does not apply, and hasn't for some time, to override or to provide ... any necessary or additional actions over the RFA. Now that's always been the case."
A bold move by one of my former heroes.
Meanwhile, the Tasmanian Government, in whose trust Minister Garrett places the fate of the Swift Parrot, is led by a man crassly and wilfully ignorant of science. A recent study by the ANU has backed up what many of us have been arguing for years - that standing forests are far more valuable as carbon stores than they are as woodchips.
Premier Bartlett, on the other hand, told The Australian newspaper that "I don't think the logging of old-growth forests is necessarily related to climate change" and called the clear global position that standing forests are more valuable than logged forests "bullshit". You can read what Christine Milne has to say about that here.
But just to confirm one of the worst weeks for Tasmania's forests in years, we were notified last night of a horrific attack on protesters in the Florentine Valley yesterday, brave people from Still Wild, Still Threatened, trying to protect forests on the eastern edge of the World Heritage Area. They had locked onto a car in the middle of a forestry access road, peacefully but effectively blocking the ability of loggers to gain access and chop down the trees. They were attacked in their car, with loggers bashing the vehicle with a sledgehammer, eventually dragging one protester out and kicking him in the head. One particularly brave protester caught it on a phone camera and the footage is now making its way around the globe.
A warning. This footage is not for the faint-hearted, or for those who dislike coarse language.
Forest activists attacked in the Upper Florentine Valley, Tassie
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Angry Foresters
I was not able to see the footage (something amiss somewhere?) but the language and sound effects are very reminiscent of the film "Deliverance" and are perhaps attributable to the same underlying causes.
The Alternatives
Firstly I do not agree with wood chipping unless we have a value added industry to convert to paper pulp ourselves. This would provide employment, not only in the logging industries, but also in the value adding industries.
Having said the above, we do have a slight problem if we stop controlled logging in Australia, and that problem is. What is better, to have controlled (well controlled logging compared to many parts of the world), or do we say no logging in Australia, and just let the customers go to Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, or even to the Amazon areas to get their timber, where there is absolutely no controls, and probably never will be, as timber for many parts of the countries is their only source of income. From all the press board furniture flooding into Australia from China, I suggest that China must already be purchasing wood chips from 3rd world countries.
In my view, controlled logging, even in old growth forests, under the controls set up by the Feds, and Tasmanian Governments, is far better than encouraging open slather logging in 3rd world countries where there are absolutely no controls. We probably would also need to import hardwood timber into Australia from the 3rd world countries (as I understand that we currently import from Malaysia), making the situation even worse.
Anyway a tricky situation, that people need to work out, controlled logging in Australia, or totally uncontrolled logging in 3rd world countries.
logging
grant, you obviously haven't visited an old growth logging coup in tassie or far east gippsland where i live, where "controlled logging" is currently destroying remnant patches of ancient forest still in the throes of being negotiated for protection (see www.geco.org.au). an eminent botanist told me 10 years ago that "not one more stick of old growth forest" should be logged, yet the so-called "managers" of our heritage forests (forestry tasmania, vic forests, d.s.e..etc) deliberately schedule clearfell logging in sensitive areas.
you see grant, these foresters are not interested in biodiversity, endangered species, water issues, climate change or scientific facts. their actions show their agenda is in converting native forests into pulp plantations, & lining the pockets of their corporate masters. the myth of employment for honest, hard working country folk, is also just that, a myth. the current logging regime consumes jobs as it does native wildlife. ask michael o'connor of the cfmeu about that. there really needs to a royal commission into the corruption of the logging industry as bob brown has said for years.
our remnant old growth forests are sacred & are our buffer against disasterous climate change. there is simply no justification in logging them at all, especially for such a low value product as pulp, even if it is processed here. selective logging of regrowth forests for high value added timbers is one thing; clearfell logging old growth forests for woodchips is criminal.
jme - not even close to the mark...
jme - that's some pretty defamatory and inaccurate remarks you made yesterday. And it seems you have a lot more faith in the national park system than I do - that is assuming that your answer to replacing native forest logging is to turn everything is some sort of poorly managed reserve, like the others that litter our country. Exception can only be made where indigenous people are still actively involved, such as Kakadu.
In 2005, more than 200,000 hectares of old-growth was destroyed by wildfire (ref. BRS 2008 State of the Forest Report) in a single day in Victoria (your backyard). Have a look at it jme - it's all young regrowth now. There was no where to run and no where to hide for biodiversity in that fire event. This is the national park way - put a fence around it - do nothing - let it all burn down - and call it natural. I call it a national disgrace and people like you jme call it the answer to our forest conservation and climate change issues. Yeah good one...
Foresters manage our land for conservation and commercial reality. Remember - you cant have sustainability without the economic link. The hand of human-kind that manages the forest, extracts a livelihood from it - is the hand that protects it for future generations. Logging in Australia may not have a perfect history, but it is the key to conservation. It is ignorant to think that eucalypt forest do not require disturbance for there long-term health and existence. Your options are to let a non-indigenous wildfire do it (who's measuring the impact of that - no body) or you can support a sustainable forest industry strive to world's best practice - as it is doing.
Foresters and forest workers are this countries un-sung environmental champions.
No species has ever become extinct from forestry practices alone in Australia and nor will the Swift Parrot.
Problem watching video?
Managed to see it via the link to MySpace. Any chance of getting this on YouTube? A lot of places block MySpace so it might not get as wide an audience as need to see it.
Not our video
Thanks, JulieG, and sorry, but its not our video, so I can't post it elsewhere.
Wow, what an bizarre
Wow, what an bizarre happening. How weird and what a behaviour..
http://vids.myspace.com/index
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=450...
is the link if anyone is interested.
Disgusting in my view.
The vidoe and the actions were disgusting. Whats more vile is the fact that someone from Forestry Tasmania was there on the scene and did nothing about this. Im not sure if this would happen anywhere elese in Australia. This clearly goes to show the Tasmanian people need to speak out more about this issue and they should be on the streets in massive numbers and demand action on this.
I feel really sad for these people that are involved and I hope the Green lobby gets behind them and slams these thugs with the full force of the law. Those loggers are disgusting and out of control. What can we Greens in other states do about this though?
Report, and lack of recovery
Please can you make the Blakers & Crawford report accessible on the web?
It is depressing that the swift parrot has had a 'Recovery Plan' for some years now and yet there seems to be no effort on the part of forest managers to help actually recover the species so that it is no longer threatened - just, at best, a small effort to reduce the rate of further decline of its extremely low population.
Sorry...?
Cass,
I totallt agree with you but the right wing forces in Tasmania are on the move. I think its going to need mass demonstrations by Tasmanians to stop any further logging in this area to save the swift Parrot. This vicsious attack by these meat head loggers there is an indication that Tasmanian authorities and forest workers dont give a stuff about the parrot. I think what should happen next is mass demonstrations in these forests and get widespread mainland media coverage.
Report now posted
Hi Cass,
full report now attached to the media release and available here.
Sadly not confined to Tasmania.
Sadly, East Gippsland activists have been attacked over the years. From faded memory though, at least some loggers faced court and consequences, which is precisely what should happen in this case. Well done the brave soul with the video camera!
And the Otways
Very true, Jude. I recall a horrible event in the Otways a few years ago, too.
From the Other Side
OK, I do not believe in violence, but what has been said about the people (loggers) on the other side. Technically they are carrying out legally authorised logging, and somebody blocks their access to where they earn an income to feed their families. Now, what do people suggest they do, just go home and claim the dole. Of course they are going to get angry, frustrated, and eventually do their blocks. In my view it will only be a matter of time before one or more of the protestors get seriously hurt.
Many, many years ago, I was with a Army unit moving into a National Park to undertake a State and Federal Government authorised training exercise in a restricted area of the park. The convoy was blocked inside the park by a group of protestors who were hindering the effort of setting up a base camp, and demanding the Army leave the Park. With tempers being stretched, the protestors vacated the area while the Officers sought to control the troops. In this case the protestors used common sence, having made their objection known, they left the area before any of them were injured.
I suggest that the logging protestors, having made their point, should have also left the area. Getting the loggers off side to the point where they are fearfull of losing their incomes to feed their families, will only lead to more and more dangerous situations developing, with sooner or later a protestor being seriously hurt.
good empathy but too simplistic
I think it may be rash to assume the men displaying this aggressive behaviour are simply acting out of a fear of not being able to feed their families or lose their incomes. There is much more behind this behaviour, notably a desire to really intimidate and/or hurt someone. By shifting the responsibility for the behaviour onto a sense of desperation is not warranted, nor should be used to condone this violent behaviour. I regularly see logging contractors who face financial strain for a variety of reasons, probably the least of which is the activities of forest protestors - however having such an easy scapegoat I think has avoided other stressors contractors face, and does little to solve their worries or contribute to formulating a meaningful future for the industry. I happen to agree with the statement made by the activists that at least some of the blame lies with the heavies in the industry in making the plight of the contractors more difficult. But of course whilst there is a scapegoat available, there will be confrontations which will sadly set back any development of understanding or dialogue between those who view the forest as threatened and those who view the forest as income.
Ok.
Grant I see your point but they broke the Law here the full force needs to come down on them. There is no excuse for that.
Violence and vigilantism never justified
With respect Grant, while understanding the frustration that the loggers in this situation must feel, that does not entitle them to take the law into their own hands and they must be dealt with the full force of the law if they do so and assault activists.
I'm not sure that you are casting the army in a good light either. Are you really saying that a bunch of army blokes were prepared to assault a group of peace activists merely because they were delayed in a convoy and only stopped from doing so by their officers? The Australian Army has a good reputation and given the real life threatening situations they face overseas, unlike facing off with a bunch of peace activists in a forest, that is just as well. I will retain my good opinion of the soldiers unless proved otherwise.
Anti-Parrot Activism
Whilst I have a lot of problems with the Greens on some issues,including wether the weather etc.This stuff,breaking windows of a car and pushing people around,is not that mature.Big bastards too.For maximal effect.And the State Government attitude,not that creative.So in what aspect of work are these big chaps involved in! Log truck drivers or owners!? I would of thought running the truck as a collection of costs would be pretty hard!Why dont these big bastards get a job driving buses,in Tasmania,or on the Mainland where there is always a shortage of responsible truck drivers outside of forest activities! Or if they were really adventuresome,try the U.S.A. now! I would also point a finger at Fed Labor,for wasn't one of their policies education and retraining! No wonder,sometimes the Green's seem inflexible cartoon like characters to me,if it wasn't so serious ,a few jokes could be compiled about big anti-parrot activists!
Anger management
Lots of us don’t get our way in life. I get blocked from achieving what I want by sources too numerous to list. The avenue for dealing with this is so often so frustrating that I feel like punching someone or breaking something and I would be amazed if most other people did not feel the same way. But we don’t, we go away and discuss our problems, stew on different ways to resolve our situations, cry when all is hopeless but we don’t wreck other peoples belongings or physically hurt them because that is not acceptable behavior in society. These loggers only need a little anger management. I would suggest that this should be studied during their jail time. Several years in jail would solve their fears about losing their jobs and income also.
Anti parrot activists and apologists.
I am not the smartest or fastest thinker on the blogs,but,sometimes,I do another rethink overnight,and automatically then find more reason to be opiniated and to question the nature of opinions and how they are related to unfolding events.It really offends me greatly now,that a certain pro-logging group almost stole its name off me,and for sometime has acted as a quasi-political group that has ushered in more than one ugly incident,and numerous opinions being made that are inadequate as far as describing those who support conservation measures.Why they decided it was a war,can only be concluded with the Gunns organization in the background thinking its influence is the undoubted discipline of all Tasmanians and possibly Australians.No wonder then,someone like Bryant is still in jail,whilst less than innocent people parade around the place as unfortunate workers in a conservation dispute.There maybe some clever thinkers still who are pro-logging,but,the are doing some damage to themselves now rather than a cause.Sympathy will always exist for workers losing jobs but,it seems,that is not enough in Tasmania,so nothing will be built on the sympathy because,they obviously don't want it.I am sure Bob Brown would go out of his way to embarass government into action in insuring these workers held respectful jobs,they dont want it..they want a enemy a political division.We pay,that is Australians,too much attention to Tasmanian events as it is.
Getting worse it seems.
This from the news. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24546101-29277,00.html
Arson now! Well on the positive side, they will be disgusting a number of people who may have previously had sympathy.
Awful....
Things are getting worse I agree. The full force of the law needs to come down on these working class thugs. THey really need to make an example out of them. This is a joke.
the two song dirge
In the short few years I journeyed around Tas. one perspective seemed to pre dominate the socio economic scenery around me.
I saw a good representation of the situation on a wall of a small town pub (not an Oasis abomination) painted by a Northern ex Gunns employee which kind of says it all.
On a two dimensional canvas, two fundamentalists one with dreads and the other with a blue singlet are chins out yelling and spitting at each other across a pie with a piece of broccoli stuck in the middle of it on a plate on the bar, with the barman in the background polishing a glass. There are a few trophies on the wall to the left of them that look to be the heads of various marsupials, greenies, mangled chainsaw, etc. The rest of the pub seems to be going about business as usual.
The scenario depicted in the clip between the contractors and the environmentalists epitomises the dichot which has evolved on the Island. Along classic Darwin lines a microcosm has evolved which has simplified a complex human / natural interacting environment down to two competing ideologies. As in all two sided battles the first simplification in the process to the equations fundamental is the cancelling out of effective communication, common sense, objective observation and social guidelines on both sides.
Subverted by the active application of ignorance, anger and violence are the natural forces allowed to reign by the human factor to bring about the change necessary to achieve a renewed balance.
As a rule of thumb, the greater the desire for faster change/ the more urgent the panic, the greater the violence.
Unfortunately as with all human contretemps which cannot achieve the balance that all nature seeks as a place to exist within universal entropy, there must be vested interests involved to maintain the in-balance thus continuing the idiocy.
The fires mentioned by James on Tuesday 28th October 2008 at 10:57am (above) where apparently accidently started by foolish locals, not “Greeny” locals or Gunns contractors as has been claimed, but townies out on a camping jaunt.
The fact that the understory in the regrowth areas where the fires took hold, adjoining older growth protected areas affected by the fires, was allowed to become incendiary and accumulate to dangerous levels is symptomatic of a dysfunctional and corrupted management system.
Forestry Tasmania, the DPIWE, Gunns and the conservation lobby groups, and the controlling egos within who claim to represent the stakeholder principles are at fault.
The same mis management is responsible for the clip scenario. This does not mitigate personal responsibility however and there is absolutely no excuse for the violence perpetrated by the contractors on the protestors, just as there should be no excuses from the major players to allow this stupidity to continue.
I hope those protestors are going to press charges against the contractors and their employees who where involved and I am sure if they do we will all be watching to see if the law is upheld.
The fact that this event has occurred indicates a level of desperation from a few unprotected contractors, being hung out to dry by Gunns as per the norm.
No doubt Rationalisation is the state of play on the corporate side, currently experiencing hardship due to damages and losses the industry is suffering. Unnecessary damage caused by an obsession with base greed and expansion based economics.
The industry does not need more, it needs to work more effectively with what it has and make room for a longer term balance.
The economy of Tasmania is not in actual fact teetering on a dwindling mountain of woodchips. That’s the arc of the convenient (modus operandi) up there teetering on that pile, filled to the gunnels with power brokers and agro nutjobs blinkered by limited vision, its ores spastically trying to grip fiscal air, manned by frightened and vulnerable violent fools with limited vocabularies and large bellies.
Logging on Brown Mountain at East Gippsland.
While it hasn't been making the media as much as it should, the wanton vandalism down in East Gippsland has been continuing with the logging of the giants of Brown Mountain. Carving off bits of the Barrier Reef would be unacceptable, yet we are taking a chainsaw to what really belongs to the future generations of Australians as well.
New youtube clip with ideas has come out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEdV5jXOeqw
Logging on Brown Mountain is Certified
All logging practices on Brown Mountain are conducted under an internationally accredited forest certification scheme - The Australian Forestry Standard (AFS). The AFS fits under the international scheme PEFC. Both PEFC/AFS and FSC are the best schemes for ensuring forestry is conducted in a sustainable manner, so that environmental features are maintained or improved. Certifcation is voluntary and shows a committment to continual improvement. It's a great world we live in when Australia's forest industry is moving so rapidly into voluntary certification either under AFS or FSC. They are both excellent schemes.
This begs the question though - "Why would anyone protest against sustainable forestry at Brown Mountain?
Certified or certifiable?
I think James that we have a different definition of 'sustainable'. Perhaps we could keep logging Brown for years and removing trees the size of the ones on the log truck in the youtube clip. Pretty soon though what makes that area special will be gone. Just another degraded forest that we have produced for our heirs to wander around in and wonder just what we thought we doing. Only our heirs won't bother to go up there - who wants to visit another logged and degraded forest full of stumps.
So the potential of Brown Mountain as a tourist attraction can be written off already. Navigating the log trucks already is a bit of a turn off, the sounds of the chainsaws would send visitors running.
The aftermath of logging I've visited in the area, involved the use of firebombing and burning after logging - not to produce better old growth trees, but to make for a nice clean regrowth of trees that will grow up nice and straight and be easily logged. Nice for the logging companies, not so nice for bio-diversity, and hell for the wildlife. Plus we don't even know how many species that there are up there, that are still to be be discovered and described. If Brown is being burnt after logging, and I'm sure you can confirm if it will be, are you sure you aren't scorching a cure for aids or childhood cancer. Plus all that carbon into the atmosphere when global warming is becoming more and more on the table.
Certifiable in my book.
Requirements for Logging
Although I do not agree with logging for the sake of wood chipping (plantation trees should be used for wood chips), where do people suggest we get the large quantity of hard wood lumber we need in Australian industries. I believe we already have ship loads of timber being imported from Malaysia and Indonesia.
If we do not have controlled logging in our forrests, then we will need to import timber from overseas. People need to think. Is it better to log our own hard wood timber requirements with the Australian controls, or do we ship in from Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, or possible the Amazon areas, where there are absolutely no controls in place. Industry will source their timber requirements, and we can supply from controlled areas, or the timber will be sourced from uncontrolled countries.
Logging saves climate
Grant. Your comments about the threat to conservation of tropical forests due to Australia's demand for wood product imports is very true. Australia's annual trade deficit in forest and wood products is now $2billion, and has been steadily growing over recent years. There is a lot of illegally and unsustainably logged wood entering Australia. This shows that new plantations are not keeping up with demand, and will never replace the wonderful timbers of native forests.
Jude. Your comment about logging being an emissions problem is misleading. Australia's forest industry is our only carbon positive industry. Some recent developments out of the climate change discussions in Poland confirms this. This is a quote from a recent IPCC Report; "In the long term, a sustainable forest managment strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustainable yield of timber, fibre or energy form the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit" - Go to http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg3.htm (Chapt. 9) for the full report.
So... sustainable forest management will do more in mitigating against climate change than national parks and other reserves. Use wood products and save the climate, and support sustainable forestry in Australia. Forests grow, wood is harvested, forests are regrown = net climate benefit.
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