BirdLife Tasmania calls for immediate cessation of logging of Swift Parrot habitat

BirdLife Tasmania calls for immediate up-listing of Swift Parrot, immediate cessation of logging of Swift Parrot habitat

BirdLife Tasmania today called for the immediate up-listing of the Swift Parrot to Critically Endangered (from its current listing of Endangered) and for the immediate cessation of all logging operations in Swift Parrot habitat following the publication of research that showed the species meets the criteria for listing as Critically Endangered.

The research was published by a research team at ANU, and used highly sophisticated computer models to predict the population trends for Swift Parrots over the next 16 years.

“All of the models show a significant and rapid decrease in the remaining population of Swift Parrots in Tasmania” Dr Eric Woehler, BirdLife Tasmania Convenor said. “Even their ‘best-case’ scenario saw a decrease just under 80% in 16 years, while the worst case scenario projected a decrease of 95%” he said.

“These projections are a massive wake up call for the Tasmanian Government, and Forestry Tasmania in particular” he said. “The models and projections are conservative – they do not include the loss of habitat that is destroying their nesting and feeding habitats from logging operations” he noted. “In the last decade, logging has been the leading cause of Swift Parrot habitat loss” Dr Woehler said.

“The study found that the single greatest threat to Swift Parrots came from predation by Sugar Gliders, and that this predation increased where logging operations had occurred.”

“Just last week we saw the Tasmanian Government ignore its own advice on managing logging in Swift Parrot habitat” Dr Woehler noted, “Clearly, the Tasmanian Government can not ignore this world class research”.

“Immediate cessation of logging Swift Parrot habitat and immediate up-listing to Critically Endangered status must be the immediate responses by the Federal and State Governments if they want to prevent the Swift Parrot following the Tasmanian Tiger into extinction” Dr Woehler proposed.