Logging Commences in the Tarkine

Jessica Trichias, Friday Feb 14^th, 2020

MELBOURNE

Logging has commenced in the Que River area in the Tarkine after years of campaigning by local communities and organisations to save the nation’s largest temperate rainforest. Sustainable Timbers Australia begun logging in the Que River area on February 4^th. However, this has not deterred defenders of the forest, who continue to protest against Sustainable Timbers Australia and the Tasmanian and Australian Government.

“This is an area of national significance.” says Scott Jordan from the Bob Brown Foundation.

The Bob Brown Foundation strives to protect Australia’s wild and natural environments of ecological significance. The organisation has been defending the Tarkine region in North-West Tasmania since 2017.

The Tarkine is the nation’s largest temperate rainforest. It includes large plains, beaches and rivers that hold many endangered species and Aboriginal heritage sites. The Australian Heritage Council encouraged the Tarkine be entered into the National Heritage List, but the Australian Government did not list the total area endorsed.

With the election Tasmania’s premier Peter Gutwein, the Tarkine has been a test of his loyalties to sustainability in Tasmania.

In a statement earlier this year, Scott called out Premier Gutwein in a media release. “If Premier Gutwein is serious about turning around his government’s record on climate change, he should immediately intervene to spare the rainforests of takayna / Tarkine.”

Now, after the commencement and continuation of the logging, Scott claims ‘the government’s approach is to destroy it (the forest)’.

As logging continues in the Tarkine, salvage logging has been portrayed in the mainstream media as a clean-up mission for the 2020 Australian Bushfires.

“We should be saving forests, not continuing to log.” Says Scott.

The Australian Forest Products Association told MP’s that salvage logging is necessary after the 2020 Australian Bushfires.

“It has a massive impact on soil, on birds and possums and gliders, and on large old trees.” Said Professor Lindenmayer from the Australian Nation University School of Environment to the Sydney Morning Herald in late January. “The forest’s recovery is impaired by 80 to 180 years”.

While debates continue on salvage logging nationally, the Bob Brown Foundation continues to protest against Sustainable Timbers Australia and milling companies such as Malaysian company Ta Ann.

“The mill should not be operated by Malaysian company Ta Ann for numerous reasons, the Australian Government should not be condoning this.”

Ta Ann has been criticised in the past for unsustainable logging practices, human rights abuses to indigenous Malaysians and palm oil expansion.

Sustainable Timbers Australia are now moving towards the Pieman River area, but protestors haven’t given up.

Many protestors have been charged for chaining themselves to bulldozers and trees while attempting to halt logging in the Que River Area in the past weeks.

“We’re just taking it day by day. People are really willing to put themselves on the line for this beautiful forest.” Says Scott.