Swift Parrot Protests Ongoing

Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 9 November 2023

FOREST PROTEST URGENT CALL FOR END TO SWIFT PARROT LOGGING

Police have arrived at a forest protest in southern Tasmania, where concerned community members have been occupying the site of logging in critically endangered swift parrot’s breeding habitat.

Bob Brown Foundation is calling for an urgent end to logging in swift parrot habitat.

“Today’s protest is in forests that the swift parrot is occupying during the breeding season. We are in coupe KD022C where our Foundation has recorded swift parrots more than 20 times inside the coupe boundary. The first one on the 28th of September before the logging and parrots have been consistently recorded since then,” said Erik Hayward, Bob Brown Foundation Campaigner.

The Kermandie forests have been the centre of protests for the past two weeks as forest defenders highlight the ongoing destruction of swift parrot habitat just as the birds are returning to the only place on Earth where they breed.

“In an ecological timeframe, this is the final last few minutes before the swift parrot becomes a relic of the past if logging in their breeding habitat is allowed to continue. Failing to stop the logging, the parrots will be banished into extinction by the greed of our federal and state governments, carried out by the unsustainable destruction of Forestry Tasmania, and sanctioned by the Forest Practices Authority whose responsibility should be to protect, not eradicate species,” Erik Hayward said.

“What is happening on the Kermandie Divide is a symptom of how Forestry Tasmania and the Rockliff government plan to continue pushing new roads into wild areas, crush endangered species habitat and chip the future of our carbon stores. We cannot simply watch on as this vastly unknown world is plundered beyond survival,” Erik Hayward said.

Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Leader, 9 November 2023

Greens Back Swift Parrot Defenders

The Greens strongly support the Bob Brown Foundation’s ongoing protest action in southern lutruwita/Tasmania, and again call on the Liberals to stop logging the habitat of the critically endangered swift parrot.

There’s been dozens of swift parrot sightings on the Kermandie Divide, but it’s made no difference to the Liberals’ appetite to slash and burn their way through this critically important habitat. It’s shameful.

We’re in a climate and biodiversity crisis, and the science is clear – we need to keep our critical carbon stores and habitat. Instead, the Liberals, backed by their Labor cheerleaders, are spending millions of taxpayer dollars on logging and burning this island’s magnificent native forests.

The swift parrot’s population numbers are plummeting, and experts confirm the biggest contributor is native forest logging.

Despite this, the Rockliff Government has made no attempt to change course – in fact, they’ve accelerated habitat destruction. The Liberals clearly see the swiftie as nothing more than an inconvenience, and seem quite content to hasten it to extinction.

With both anti-science major parties blinding backing the native forest logging industry, it makes the work of brave forest defenders and citizen scientists more important than ever. The Greens applaud everyone who is peacefully defending our carbon-rich forests, trying to save threatened species from extinction.

We stand with people on the frontline of this defence, and the majority of Tasmanians who want lutruwita/Tasmania’s forests protected. It is shameful that both the Labor and Liberal Parties are prepared to see forests and species disappear forever.