Article
ABC expose the tip of the iceberg for Swift Parrot habitat destruction
Tasmania’s Premier Rockliff is driving the log truck to Swift Parrot extinction as his government knowingly locks in more logging of the only place on Earth where it breeds, Tasmania’s native forests. The government’s catastrophic failure to address the plight of a critically endangered species, and knowingly continuing to harm the species, shows why native forest logging has no social licence.
Damning evidence from today’s ABC expose proves that Tasmania’s government is prioritising logging destruction of the Swift Parrots’ only nurseries in the world, with full knowledge that logging is the key driver to its extinction. While today’s ABC online piece paints a grim picture of the plight of the Swift Parrot, the on-ground evidence of logging Swift Parrot breeding habitat is ever worse.
“Deliberate destruction of Swift Parrot breeding habitat in Tasmania comes with full knowledge of the direct harm logging has on Swift Parrots. Tasmania’s native forest logging industry has, for decades, knowingly flattened native forests that are the breeding habitat for critically endangered Swift parrots with full government endorsement. Swift Parrots are one of the threatened species suffering catastrophic loss due to logging, and one of many reasons why logging should end immediately in all native forests on this island,” said Jenny Weber, Campaigns Director with Bob Brown Foundation.
“Forestry Tasmania knows they have the full support of the logging government when they released their three-year logging plan ten days ago, with ninety-five proposed coupes that overlap Swift Parrot breeding habitat,” said Jenny Weber.
In 2015, the Swift Parrot was listed as critically endangered, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) made a landmark recommendation that all Swift Parrot habitat on public lands be placed in secure, permanent conservation reserves.
“The international conservation bodies’ advice was ignored, and worse, every government since 2015 has continued the logging of the parrot’s habitat. ‘Management’ has not been reviewed since prior to conservation advice that all forests supporting Swift Parrots should be in secure conservation reserves. The government’s greenwashed Swift Parrot Important Breeding Areas are still seeing substantial habitat loss,” said Jenny Weber
Bob Brown Foundation has amassed reams of evidence over the past decade of Swift Parrot habitat destruction, proving that the forests of Lonnavale are the tip of the iceberg.
“Across Tasmania, the only place on Earth where Swift Parrots breed, there are forest regions being flattened, despite reams of evidence that the parrots nest and feed there. Between Campbell Town and Swansea, forests of northern Snow Hill have not been declared a Swift Parrot Important Breeding Area despite a large amount of nesting evidence in the area,” said Jenny Weber.
“Even when Swift Parrots are present in an active logging area during the breeding season, such as Kermandie forests KD022C, it takes our environmental organisation to commence court proceedings to get an injunction and temporarily halt the logging inside a recognised Swift Parrot Important Breeding Area. This is despite daily Swift Parrot records collected by us, accepted by the Government’s natural values atlas, which are records of the parrots in the forest while the trees are being flattened,” said Jenny Weber.
“Again, in this last summer breeding season, logging commenced and flattened a large area of forests in Wielangta despite years of scientific evidence of Swift Parrot presence, and again, daily records of the Swift Parrots by our foundation. The Forest Practices Authority response was to allow the clearfelling to continue and slightly adjust the logging boundary, leaving a very small isolated island patch of trees,” said Jenny Weber
“Swift Parrots are suffering a harmful decline to extinction due to ongoing native forest logging. The logging must end, and native forest protection is critically urgent,” said Jenny Weber.
ABC story:
Bob Brown Foundation
In this age of rapid destruction of the biosphere, attended by cynicism and pessimism, our foundation will use ecological reality and optimism to promote real environmental wins. We aim to help campaigns and activists who show real pluck and intelligence in protecting ecosystems, species and wild and scenic heritage.
The Foundation is a non-profit fund that will promote the protection and enhancement of, and the provision of information and education about:
The wild and scenic beauty of Tasmania
The ecological integrity of Australia
Earth’s wilderness
The happiness of humanity on Earth
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