GRANT Occupies Forestry Tasmania Office

Media release – Grassroots Action Network Tasmania (GRANT), 15 March 2024

DOZENS REWILD FORESTRY TASMANIA’S HOBART OFFICE IN CALL FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CATASTROPHE AND PALAWA LAND RETURNS

Members of Grassroots Action Network Tasmania (GRANT) have this morning occupied Forestry Tasmania’s nipaluna/Hobart office to call for the abolition of Forestry Tasmania and return of stolen lands to the palawa community.

Dozens of community members ‘rewilded’ the lobby of the office, filling it with soil, ash, and plant matter from logged forests. The group has called for collaboration towards environmental justice and degrowth in lutruwita/Tasmania; stating that the future of our state’s ecosystems must be in reconstruction, not continued destruction.

Forestry Tasmania is the state’s highest emitter, responsible for approximately one third of Tasmania’s total yearly emissions. The state-owned enterprise is also exempt from federal laws which protect threatened species and, through habitat destruction, is actively driving the extinction of numerous plants and animals. As such, GRANT is calling for the abolition of Forestry Tasmania for the environmental, economic, and social benefit of all people on lutruwita.

While the state-owned enterprise currently facilitates employment for a small amount of people (native forestry employs well under 1% of the Tasmanian labour force), it remains an economic burden on the people of lutruwita/Tasmania – having lost the state $1.3 billion between 1997 and 2017. GRANT argues that the current native forestry system produces capital for a very few ‘timber barons’, with minimal consideration for long-term stability of workers and communities. GRANT supports a just societal transition to truly sustainable land management – no one should be left behind.

“How we manage the land we live on, including forests, is also a question of who we want to be – caretakers or conquerors,” said Hughie, an organiser with GRANT. “As long as we pillage this land for profit and send it away on ships, we can never claim to belong. It is well overdue that we transition to being caretakers of this land, aiding it back to the health it was in when settlers arrived. This requires us to take lead from the palawa people.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states in its most recent climate report that “recognition of inherent rights of Indigenous people … is integral to successful forest adaptation [to climate change].” The forests of lutruwita have been managed by palawa for millenia, and are important ancient ancestral spaces. GRANT calls for the immediate and direct handback of all forestry land to the palawa people and the supply of resources to manage that land. Currently, less than 1% of lutruwita is ‘formally owned’ by the palawa community.

“GRANT stands in solidarity with the palawa people in their quest for land back,” said Hughie. “We also need to recognise that our institutions and industries in Tasmania are still bound up by an engrained colonial thinking,” they added. “The Government of Tasmania has been destroying lutruwita’s ecosystems since invasion began. Forestry Tasmania is one of the worst culprits, but they’re not alone – each of our institutions has an ideological commitment to turning this land into profit.”

“The state’s refusal to return country directly to the palawa people is rooted in the same colonial desire to extract resources from lands and waterways at great cost to our environment, social harmony, and the health of current and future generations.”

Extractive industries, driven by economic growth, are the greatest threat to the Earth’s ability to support life. In Tasmania, this ideology has resulted in the mass clear-felling of ancient forest and replacement with chemical-laden monoculture plantations. Despite this huge established resource of wood, native forest logging continues today.  The main product of native forest logging by volume is woodchips (>85%) for export to China and Taiwan.  For the benefit of all, GRANT urges all parties to collaborate to protect forests, restore ecosystems, and transition to a localised needs-based economy that upholds the intrinsic value of the environment.

GRANT particularly supports collaboration with the palawa community to increase carbon stocks, regenerate habitat, remove invasive species, and conduct low intensity burns on their returned land – creating social and material benefits for both them and the wider community.
“Climate breakdown is unavoidable if we continue destroying our environment for resources,” added Hughie. “The solutions need to come in reducing our energy needs, reducing our ecological footprint, and restoring the biological systems that all life depends on. Protecting forests achieves all of these.”

Finally, GRANT expresses their solidarity with jailed forest defender Ali Alishah. No one should be imprisoned for protecting the environment. He should be released immediately and his demands should be met.