The cracking of our hearts

Speech by Ula Majewski., left in the Florentine. Speech: Parliament Lawns, Hobart. 13th January 2009.
There is nothing quite like the silence of a freshly cut clearfell or a freshly cut aggregated retention coupe, just as there is nothing quite like the terrible roar of a chainsaw or an excavator splitting open the dawn air. In these blasted landscapes, the voice falls silent; narrative is systematically rendered nonexistent. To stand within this silence, in the choked up confusion of mud and splintered stumps, to come across the jagged remains of a tree under which you sat a few weeks before, is to truly understand the terrible parameters of ignorance and disrespect that are compelled by something as fundamental and as simple as human greed.

In the Upper Florentine Valley, Forestry Tasmania plans to build 10.8km of roading over the next two and a half years. If this roading goes ahead, some of our most precious forested ecosystems will be ripped apart and left open to industrial scale devastation at the hands of woodchipping barons Gunns Limited. 84% of the timber harvested from these forests will be woodchipped and exported by Gunns Limited to places like Japan to make office paper. Yesterday we stood on the Gordon River Road in the Upper Florentine Valley. We watched a huge monster of an excavator clanking and rumbling off the back of a truck and into a forest which I love beyond any form of articulation. Our hearts were cracking. However, there are still forest activists perched high in the canopy of the Upper Florentine Valley. Our dear friend Adrian is locked into a tunnel in the middle of Forestry Tasmania’s logging road, preventing the machines from going any further.

Good afternoon. Thank you for coming out to support Tasmania’s old growth forests. As we stand here, Tasmania Police and Forestry Tasmania are attempting to demolish Camp Florentine, which has been defending these beautiful forests for over two years, and smash a 4km logging road through the exquisite old growth forests located in the valley.

As Bob and Vica have said, the Upper Florentine Valley is one of our most spectacular wild places. It contains vast tracts of pristine old growth tall eucalypt forest and rainforest and is bordered on three sides by world heritage. The valley contains outstanding examples of indigenous and european cultural heritage. Last year, the World Heritage Committee came out and strongly recommended that the Tasmanian and Australian Governments seriously consider placing the Upper Florentine, the Styx and the Weld Valleys into the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The IUCN went even further, highly recommending that a moratorium on logging in these areas be put in place immediately. Peter Garrett and Minister O’Byrne refused, coming out and saying that everything was fine.

Apart from these pristine forests providing threatened species habitat, being amazing places for the community to go and just marvel, they also store a huge amount of carbon. And as more and more science comes out about the role of carbon in our old growth forests and about the role of these forests in protecting our planet from dangerous climate change, it seems more and more ludicrous that they continue to road, log, woodchip and burn these forests.

Every year, specific areas within Tasmania’s publicly owned old growth and high conservation value forests are dissected into logging coupes, which are then identified with a particular code – for example, FO44A, FO45A or FO45B. These are then positioned within the time-line of a harvesting schedule. These forests that, in some sense, could be said to exist in a place beyond the adequacy of language, are reduced to a string of letters and numbers. Red lines are traced in Forestry Tasmania across topographical maps using computer based modelling systems, effectively tattooing the landscape with a precise calligraphy of impending eradication.

There is nothing quite like the silence of a freshly cut clearfell or a freshly cut aggregated retention coupe, just as there is nothing quite like the terrible roar of a chainsaw or an excavator splitting open the dawn air. In these blasted landscapes, the voice falls silent; narrative is systematically rendered nonexistent. To stand within this silence, in the choked up confusion of mud and splintered stumps, to come across the jagged remains of a tree under which you sat a few weeks before, is to truly understand the terrible parameters of ignorance and disrespect that are compelled by something as fundamental and as simple as human greed.

In the Upper Florentine Valley, Forestry Tasmania plans to build 10.8km of roading over the next two and a half years. If this roading goes ahead, some of our most precious forested ecosystems will be ripped apart and left open to industrial scale devastation at the hands of woodchipping barons Gunns Limited. 84% of the timber harvested from these forests will be woodchipped and exported by Gunns Limited to places like Japan to make office paper. Yesterday we stood on the Gordon River Road in the Upper Florentine Valley. We watched a huge monster of an excavator clanking and rumbling off the back of a truck and into a forest which I love beyond any form of articulation. Our hearts were cracking. However, there are still forest activists perched high in the canopy of the Upper Florentine Valley. Our dear friend Adrian is locked into a tunnel in the middle of Forestry Tasmania’s logging road, preventing the machines from going any further.

Tasmania is the largest exporter of woodchips in Australia, exporting more woodchips than all the other states combined. Last year, Forestry Tasmania released figures which showed that wood from publicly owned native forests will be sold to Gunns Limited, the world’s largest exporter of hardwood chips from between $12.50 and $13.75 per tonne from 1 January 2008. Managing Director of Forestry Tasmania, Bob Gordon, has also confirmed that 500 000 tonnes of woodchips sourced from our old growth forests will be exported annually.

Although Gunns cut the majority of Tasmania’s 170 forest harvesting businesses’ long-term woodchip contracts by over 40 percent in 2006, the company reported a $75 million annual net profit for the 2006-2007 financial year. Over the past few months, Tasmanian forest contractors have been lobbying the Australian Government for assistance packages to exit the industry with dignity. Over the last decade, Forestry Tasmania and the forestry industry have received at least $326 million in federal and state based taxpayer funded subsidies through the Tasmanian RFA and TCFA financial packages alone. Last year, Forestry Tasmania, the GBE responsible for managing our public forests in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable manner, reported an annual loss in excess of $30 million.

Taken together, these factors suggest a markedly different situation than the one that continues to be propagated and peddled by the logging industry in Tasmania. A different picture begins to emerge which has little to do with conflict between loggers and greenies and everything to do with local jobs, taxpayers’ dollars and publicly owned old growth and high conservation value forests being destroyed by Forestry Tasmania – identified by ANU economist Judith Ajani as “a profitless wood supply service” – and Gunns Ltd. in order to maximise profits for the largest and wealthiest corporation on the island, predominantly through the export of enormous volumes of woodchips.

We are currently facing a global climate emergency. It is an act of utter daylight lunacy to continue logging and burning our precious carbon dense forests. However, right across our island, in forests like the Weld Valley, the Styx Valley, in the Blue Tier, in the Wedge, in the Arve, in the exquisite tall eucalypt forests of the Tarkine and in the Great Western Tiers, Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Limited are ripping apart some our most precious natural heritage.

Myself and 12 of my dear friends are being sued by Gunns Limited for taking peaceful action at Triabunna chip mill and standing up against this outrageous destruction. Right now in the Upper Florentine Valley, activists are speaking out and standing strong in defence of our world class ancient forests.

We are calling out loud to the our community here in Tasmania and across the nation. We are calling out to the Tasmanian and Australian Governments. We are calling out to the global community to speak out and take a stand together against the forces that would destroy our communities, our beautiful island and our most precious and exquisite old growth and high conservation value forests here in Tasmania.