Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 13 October 2022
Tasmanian rainforest protest showcased in world photography prize
Bob Brown Foundation congratulates Calumn Hockey who has been highly commended in one of the world’s most prestigious wildlife photography competitions for a photo of our takayna protest blockade. The blockade was in place for five months in early 2022 preventing the destruction of the area by Chinese state owned MMG which proposes a heavy metals mine waste dump over 285 hectares.
Hockey has been announced as a highly commended photographer in the photojournalism category in the London Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards. Calumn’s photo of two tree sitters high in a eucalyptus, threatened by logging, was in the top 100 out of 40 000 photos.
“The global spotlight must be on Tasmania’s takayna / Tarkine as its future is threatened by deforestation, logging and mining. One of its tall ancient trees with peaceful defenders has reached global attention overnight and should be a warning beacon to the world that takayna needs urgent protection from further destruction,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Jenny Weber said.
“Peaceful protests to defend and protect takayna’s rainforests have recently been criminalised by Tasmania’s government which has failed to provide secure protection for takayna / Tarkine. Successive governments have failed to protect world heritage values, rare and endangered species and one of the last wild places on Earth. Global attention on the plight of takayna and support for our peaceful defence of Australia’s largest temperate rainforests will spur us on in our relentless call for its protection,” Jenny Weber said.
Calumn is a self-taught photojournalist and videographer who shoots in documentary style covering matters surrounding environmental and social movements throughout Australia.
Portfolio: https://calumnh.com/takayna-frontline.
William Boeder
October 17, 2022 at 18:09
What can possibly replace Tasmania’s iconic indigenous Gondwanaland forests? The answer is – nothing whatsoever.
Some twenty-odd years ago there was little talk about the regeneration of Tasmania’s array of native forests, as back in those former times most of the trees being logged were headed straight to the state’s wood-chippers selling our forests in chip form across the world to buyers seeking to incorporate Tasmania’s cheap wood chips into many forms of paper, or whatever the end product was going to be.
Tasmania, small island that it is, was providing wood chips to the world’s markets.
It is nigh impossible to replace all the thousands of hectares that have been logged across our small state. Yes, the planting of eucalyptus hardwood timber plantations had begun.
Ta Ann Berhad had nominated its interest in buying and converting Tasmania’s plantation-grown hardwood forests into laminated timber sheets for export to wherever such manufactured multiple-layer timber sheets were sought, as the end products from the state’s magnitude of plantation timbers would provide its multiple uses.
Shortly thereafter, Ta Ann sought only native forest timber for its laminating processed products. Back in Paul Lennon’s years as state Premier, he announced a long-term stumping charge set quite low, low enough that it could not support the logging of Tasmania’s native forests. That low-cost stumping charge would prove uneconomical as the state’s government’s logging arm (known as Forestry Tasmania) could not cover the costs of its harvesting and the delivery of its logged native forest harvested logs.
Enter the era of state government funding grants to maintain the huge Ta Ann allocated annual tonnage, sought at that unsustainable low price originally guaranteed to the Malaysian timber giant, yet the former low-cost of their logged and delivered massive annually contracted volume of native forest would continue to be seen rolling along the roads leading out from the coalface of Tasmania’s native forested timber lands.
This insanity of underpriced native forest timber was much appreciated by Mr Hamed Sepawi, major shareholder and director of Malaysia’s logging giant in its process of removing great swathes of the Malaysian state of Sarawak’s hardwood logged timber forests in preparation for the huge number of palm oil seeded trees.
Meanwhile, in Tasmania, the state government had rather belatedly introduced the regeneration of its logged forests with seedlings from the former, indigenous to the state’s hardwood forests. The areas set for regeneration had begun to show its former ground-zero forested floors slowly gaining in size during their 90 year regeneration process.
That was until Mr Evan Rolley had swung over to join the forces of the state’s largest plunderer of our native forests, Mr Hamed Sepawi, had spoken to Mr Sepawi about the availability of great swathes of partly regenerated native forest, and moreso the right size for Ta Ann’s desired native timber supply. That former regeneration process has since collapsed in those areas which were set aside for regeneration, their having been logged again.
Vale the integrity of Tasmania’s non-sustainable Timbers Tasmania.
I have noticed that logging-obsessed minister, Guy Barnett, has recently jumped from the sinking ship of non-sustainable Timbers Tasmania.