Tim Morris
“The costs of logging the ancient ecosystems in the Upper Florentine Valley are far, far higher than the paltry returns to Tasmania from these logging operations,” said Mr Morris.
GREENS TABLE PETITION AGAINST UPPER FLORENTINE LOGGING
Costs of This Logging Will Outweigh Benefits
Tim Morris MP
Greens Member for Lyons
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today tabled a petition signed by a further 30 people, against the logging operation being conducted in the ancient forests of the Upper Florentine Valley, as part of an ongoing petition campaign which has seen a total of 286 signatures being placed before the Parliament stemming back to March last year.
Greens Member for Lyons, Tim Morris MP, said the forestry operation in the Upper Florentine Valley will destroy the habitat of a number of endangered species, damage valuable leatherwood stands, release thousands of tonnes of carbon, and threaten future nature-based tourism opportunities in the region.
“The costs of logging the ancient ecosystems in the Upper Florentine Valley are far, far higher than the paltry returns to Tasmania from these logging operations,” said Mr Morris.
“The Upper Florentine Valley has been recognised as possessing World Heritage Values and it is surrounded on three sides by Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area – it is wanton vandalism to log these forests at this time.”
“The ancient ecosystems of the Upper Florentine Valley are also enormous carbon banks – logging them just as the world begins to face the challenges of climate change is divisive and stupid politics of the worst kind.”
“This will be the last tranche of this petition as it has been superceded by an e-petition on the same matter which has already garnered 338 signatures since being launched on 3 February 2009. This e-petition can be found at: http://210.8.42.131/view/EPetitions_TAS_Assembly/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetNum=10&lIndex=-1”
