Yesterday's dynamiting of trees in Tasmania's Florentine forests threatens Tasmanians with 'redneck vandal' status, Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said in Canberra today.
"Forestry Tasmania is dynamiting forest of World Heritage value and, yesterday, threatened the existing World Heritage Area with the fire from the dynamiting, which then burnt out 20 football fields in area of forests and wildlife habitat," Senator Brown said.
"All this, with the mission from UNESCO's World Heritage Centre in Paris inspecting the area to see the logging operations near the boundary to assess the impact on the integrity of the World Heritage Area."
"Forestry Tasmania's dismissive arrogance in its official vandalism threatens Tasmania's reputation worldwide," Senator Brown said.
Senator Brown has asked Environment Minister Peter Garrett to intervene and end the use of explosives in logging these forests.
Further information: Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603