Transcript of media conference with Tom Allen, Campaign Manager for The Wilderness Society, Dr Jennifer Sanger, Co-founder of The Tree Projects, Peter McGlone, CEO Tasmanian Conservation Trust, and GRANT (Grassroots Action Network Tasmania) at Parliament Lawns, Hobart, 8 September 2023.
Dr Jennifer Sanger.
Dr Jennifer Sanger
The swift parrot recovery plan was released just recently. What we found in this plan is that there’s a complete carve out for forestry and they’re exempt from taking any action at all. So the recovery plan actually highlights that forest logging is one of the major factors leading to the decline in this bird species. But what we’ve seen when it comes to the actions of the plan, that they call for the protection of critical habitat, except for areas managed by forestry. So we have an exemption for any areas that have been managed from the Regional Forest Agreements.
This is exactly what we’ve been seeing with the national environmental laws for the last 20 or so years. We have this massive exemption, where the forestry industry does not have to abide by national environmental laws. They don’t have to take any action on the swift parrot and they’re just left to their own devices. And why is this? Why does every other entity or industry have to abide by the rules yet forestry gets this massive exemption? It’s just not fair.
This recovery plan was our last chance to actually save this species; the swift parrot had been predicted to become extinct by 2030. This was our last chance to actually take action to protect this. And this is just the death warrant for this species. There’s no coming back if we don’t take action right now. And the best way to protect the swift parrot is to end native forest logging.
Journalist – unidentified
Is there a world where logging and this species can co exist? Do you need to get rid of logging altogether to be able to save it?
Dr Jennifer Sanger
I truly believe that we need to end native forest logging in Tasmania in order to save the swift parrot, also ending native forest logging is so important for many other reasons. In terms of action on climate change, ending native forest logging is basically the single most important thing that Tasmania could do to protect our climate, and our species as well. From a biodiversity standpoint, native forest logging is so bad for our threatened species. It’s bad for our environment, it’s bad for the climate, and it just needs to end.
Journalist – unidentified
They’ve made a whole deal about releasing this recovery plan. But do you think there was really no point if they’re not going to ban logging?
Dr Jennifer Sanger
What we actually saw last year, there was some FOI documents that got put in to actually look at what was happening with the recovery plan, because it was literally five years overdue. What these documents found was that the Tasmanian Government was trying to water down the wording in the recovery plan. So the team that got together to do the recovery plan – the scientists, the conservationists, the government entities – they had actually managed to get a fairly strong plan together that addressed the major threats, which of course is forestry. But what we saw with these FOI documents on various drafts, the Tasmanian Government was threatening to not sign on to the agreement unless forestry was taken out of the equation. Here we are having having a government trying to protect a single industry at the expense of a threatened species, which is just … it’s corruption really.
Journalist – unidentified
And how devastating would it be if this species did go extinct?
Dr Jennifer Sanger
The swift parrot is just such a remarkable species. It’s so charismatic. It’s the fastest parrot in the whole world. And it’s an absolute delight to have them come down to Tasmania every summer and feed in our trees, and tourists come here to see this species. If we lose this species, if we lose the swift parrot it’s going to be devastating. And this is going to be the first one of a wave of extinctions that we’re going to see if we don’t start looking after our forests looking after our environment and acting on climate change.
Tom Allen
Here we are in the midst of an unprecedented global extinction crisis. This is the government’s new very late recovery plan for the world’s fastest parrot, the swift parrot. To put this out, to issue this is really an insult to conservation. To put this out on Threatened Species Day yesterday, it’s a slap in the face for conservationists.
We have a solution. Ultimately, we want to protect or high conservation value native forests, which are this species’ habitat. We have a solution here that we published -The Wilderness Society, The Tree Projects and Birdlife – last year. It shows that protecting the fullest extent of swift parrot habitat constitutes just 7% of production forests. That’s a solution, that’s a workable solution. It would make no difference to Forestry Tasmania, which doesn’t make money anyway.
Tom Allen
And the government has basically rejected this plan in favour of logging. As Jen Sanger was saying, the new recovery plan identifies industrial logging as a driver, the main driver, of the extinction of this species, but then it doesn’t do anything about it. Worse, still, it exempts, effectively, the logging forests from this plan. And so the logging industry can continue to log its habitat. And that’s the primary cause of its extinction. So what we say is this recovery plan pulls its punches and locks in the extinction of the world’s fastest parrot. It’s a tragic and a wasted opportunity.
Journalist – unidentified
Is there anything outlined in the recovery plan? Can you see any good to it?
Tom Allen
Well, not really, because as well as being very, very late, it doesn’t do what it needs to do. It doesn’t actually protect the habitat of the species it’s trying to protect. It rearranges the furniture, it does some nibbling around the edges. But fundamentally, as with most species that are in decline around the world, the primary cause of extinction is habitat destruction. And that’s what’s causing the swift parrot to go extinct. But that’s not what this plan deals with. And just to be really positive, we have a plan. We have a workable plan, here’s the solution. Here’s the failure.
Tasmanian Times
How does your plan compare on costings to the amount that the federal government is prepared to put into their swift parrot recovery plan?
Tom Allen
If you look at the totality of forestry economics, Forestry Tasmania loses money because what it costs to log forests, what it costs the government to log forests, is less than the value of the wood. So these solutions are within that context. And so we would say that the value of the world’s fastest parrot is priceless. The cost is really a drop in the ocean compared to the money that continues to be lost to logging. If you protect forests, transition the industry, end native forest logging, you know, the value of what our forests could be used for far extends beyond the value of logging. And so that’s really the context that we’re approaching, the small price to pay to protect the swift parrot.
Peter McGlone.
Peter McGlone
What I’d like to address head on is that the logging industry and governments often point the finger at the sugar glider as the major threat to swift parrots. Sugar gliders are a threat because of logging of forests. What happens is that where you log forests, reduce the density the number of tree hollows, the sugar glider predates on the swift parrot to kill it to get its home, to get its hollow. It’s not after the swift parrot for food, it’s after the swift parrot’s home it’s after the swift parrot’s hollow. So the recovery plan actually quite correctly identifies the link between logging, removal of hollows, and predation from gliders, but it doesn’t actually recommend that the logging should stop. So, again, the recovery plan identifies threats, in the sugar glider, but doesn’t actually provide the solution.
Tasmanian Times
Have you approached our relatively new independents Lara Alexander and John Tucker, to see – now that they’re no longer bound to Liberal policy – to see where they stand on this issue?
Tom Allen
Interesting question. I have not, but I’ll definitely be open to discussing with them ways that they think they might be able to help protect the swift parrot because it needs all the help, they can get off to this really weak and meek recovery plan. And also, I’d be really interested in discussing with them ideas around forest protection and better ways to use our forests than logging them.
It’s important to remember, every log is a loss, economic and ecological. And we know now that we’re in the era of urgent forest protection, and the age of ransacking forests for a loss is over. There are much better ways to value our forests, as we saw with the recent launch of the Big Tree State, which shows eight fantastic examples of local communities benefiting from big tree tourism, no destruction required.
