Conservationists from across the country have joined forces today (Thursday), as part of a national day of action against the continued logging and burning of native forests. Conservation groups from Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales, Canberra and Queensland are taking part in local actions to highlight the threats to biodiversity that burning native forests for electricity will create.
In the midst of the election campaign, conservationists are calling on both major parties to announce policy intervention to resolve the forest crisis.
In Hobart, conservationists from Still Wild Still Threatened and the Huon Valley Environment Centre staged a protest outside Forestry Tasmania’s Melville Street headquarters. A giant toaster, representing a forest furnace, popped out burnt endangered wildlife such as the Tasmanian devil.
Two conservationists climbed onto the roof of the building and displayed a banner saying “Don’t Toast Our Wildlife – Ban Wood Fired Power”.
Community members also gathered outside Forestry Tasmania to sign letters addressed to major parties calling for the protection of native forests and the passage of legislation to ban burning native forests for electricity.
“The archaic practice of burning native forests for electricity is highly polluting, unsustainable and will allow the industry continued access to high conservation value native forests, crucial for climate change mitigation and biodiversity. The last thing the forest industry needs is another low value, high volume product that will entrench the current unsustainable practices of forestry in Tasmania” said Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Ed Hill.
The Australian logging industry is promoting wood fired power stations as a solution to the current glut in the woodchip market. But conservationists have labelled wood fired power an archaic, unsustainable and wasteful practice that produces more emissions than burning coal.
A recent major study commissioned by the Government of the US State of Massachusetts, ‘The Manomet Biomass Sustainability and Carbon Policy Study’, found that using wood for energy releases more CO2 into the atmosphere per unit of energy than fossil fuels (oil, coal, or natural gas).
“There is an unequivocal failure in the Commonwealth Renewable Energy legislation that deems burning wood to be ‘carbon neutral’, and awards Renewable Energy Certificates to such projects, in an attempt to secure essential emissions reductions, when the latest scientific research has clearly demonstrated that burning wood will actually lead to more emissions than the most intensive energy sources” said Mr Hill.
“Despite the recent collapse of the woodchip market and the writing on the wall for the industry to restructure onto a sustainable footing, cynical elements of the industry want to send our precious native forests and endangered species habitat to be burnt in forest furnaces” said Mr Hill.
Photo 1: Melbourne
Photo 2: Perth
Photo 3: Batemens Bay
Photo 4: Hobart
Still Wild Still Threatened is a grassroots community organisation campaigning for the immediate protection of Tasmania’s ancient forests and the creation of an equitable and environmentally sustainable forestry industry in Tasmania.
www.stillwildstillthreatened.org
[email protected]
