Philippa Duncan Mercury
GREENS Senator Bob Brown has won a landmark case against Forestry Tasmania that could change the way forests are logged in Australia. Dr Brown yesterday hailed the Federal Court decision a “monumental win for the nation’s forests and endangered species”. He said Justice Shane Marshall’s historic judgment would not allow logging to occur in forests where endangered species live. Dr Brown has been locked in a David-and-Goliath battle to stop logging in the Wielangta State forest on Tasmania’s East Coast since May 2005. Justice Marshall today ruled Forestry Tasmania had contravened the Regional Forest Agreement and was not exempt from the federal Environmental Biodiversity Protection and Conservation Act. He also determined logging in the Wielangta area would have a significant impact on three endangered species: the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, the broad-toothed stag beetle and the swift parrot. Dr Brown hailed the case, which cost conservations $500,000 to fight, as the most crucial since the 1983 Franklin Dam case.
