A Tarkine Park … The Campaign Continues …

*Pic: Comment 82

*Pic: Mist shrouded cool–temperate rainforest in the Tarkine. Pic – Ted Mead.

First published March 7

Most conservationists are still reeling from the disastrous result of the recent state election aware of what this means regarding threats towards Tasmania’s natural environment. Yet the campaign for securing protection of the Tarkine region will unquestionably continue onward … here’s why …

Long before the March 3 election it was already considered that protection for the Tarkine wasn’t going to be a mainstream political party issue. This was recently attested by the announcement from both Liberal and Labor where they stated that neither would support a Tarkine National Park. Such a declaration came as no surprise, and by the next scheduled election in 2022 this bipartisan view will likely remain unchanged.

So why will the protection of the Tarkine region be such an uphill battle considering there is an ongoing downturn within the mining and native forestry industries?

STT have already extracted 90% of the Tarkine’s timber that is available to them, though the Liberals do have their eye on the rainforest resource. For these globally valued forests there will probably never be a world market despite the enormous subsidies a proactive Forestry government would openly provide!

Mineral exploration and extraction in the Tarkine has hit an all time low. Low commodity prices, an uncertain $US dollar exchange rate, and a glut of cheaper mineral deposits elsewhere in the world indicates there will be no new profitable mines in the region in the foreseeable future if ever.

The greatest hindrance to the protection of the Tarkine is that it lies within one of the state’s and nation’s most marginal swinging electorates where parliamentary seats fluctuate through jobs and economic prosperity that are centred around resource extraction. As a result no government, despite any view on environmental protection, are willing to advocate the protection of the Tarkine.

Some conservationists believe that the Tarkine will never be fully protected. That thinking based in the current political climate is reasonably founded, however with the dire global catastrophe that looms for the planet ahead, grand tracts of forest and wilderness may have their imperative values considered significantly in the near future.

The Tarkine beholds the nations largest single tract of temperate rainforest, and is one the most notable in the southern hemisphere That reality may not be shunned indefinitely as the world grapples to keep climate change under control. It is possible that through a future carbon credit scheme the Tarkine’s forest will be highly valued far beyond its resource extraction potential.

It has always been my view that the secure protection of the Tarkine is unlikely to happen before 2025. It will only be a guess as to what will be the nation’s values of the environment will be by then, as it is predicted there will a global ecological and biodiversity decline over the next decade or so from the rise of the Earth’s temperature.

History shows us with conservation that the unthinkable can happen, as did when large tracts of high conservation forest through out the state were amended to the Western Tasmanian World Heritage Area in recent times.

Even I didn’t believe that the Picton or Styx valleys would ever see a day free from unbridled logging, but markets, human values and political awareness do change.

We can only hope there is a massive rethink about the values of nature in forth coming years.

With the Tasmanian Labor party shell shocked, and the Greens dumbfounded, conservationists will have to think beyond the insular and conservative governance of today just as they have in the past.

We need to remind ourselves that the degradation of Tasmania’s natural environment is essentially the degeneration of the island’s prosperity.

The choice to protect what remains is imperative.

A Tarkine National Park / World Heritage Area still beckons!

*Ted Mead woke up on March 4 feeling hung over and disillusioned, but for him that scenario has been far too familiar after a state or federal election. As a means of keeping upbeat about the environmental challenges ahead, Ted simply reflects on the success of Tasmanian conservationists over the last several decades. Ted admits his connection to the natural world is what beholds his sanity and happiness, so it is a natural disposition for him to continue standing in its defence even though others haven’t …