Forestry Peace Deal Up in Smoke - Lets Hope the Tas Forest Doesnt Go With it... Well…the hard wrought, amazingly successful forestry peace deal – that ended 30 years of fighting between environmentalists and loggers - has been dumped by both houses of the Tasmanian government. The termination of the four-year peace deal – which provided payment for loggers to move away from felling native forests - will also remove 400 000ha of state-wide native forest from reserves for logging. Needless to say, the scrapping of the deal could restart some of the fervent protests previously seen in Tasmania’s forests – although the government HAS introduced tough anti-protest laws, aimed squarely at activists who disrupt timber operations. Environmentalists argue that the state’s native forests are far more valuable left standing, to be used for carbon storage and also for tourism. (Tasmania’s tourism industry employs around 15% of the state’s workforce, compared to around 1% of people employed in the forestry sector.) “Tasmania’s government has issued a licence for native forest annihilation in an era when native forest logging should cease, for climate mitigation and ecosystem benefits.” Said Bob Brown Foundation’s Jenny Weber. “At the helm over the unique forests in Tasmania is a government that has legislated for the ongoing logging of wildlife habitat of quolls, wedge-tailed eagles, Tasmanian devils and swift parrots.” theguardian/world/2014/sep/03/tasmanian-government-rips-up-forestry-peace-deal
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 08:59:15 +0000
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