One of the last honourable environmental organisations fighting to save Tasmania’s Native Forests

Still Wild Still Threatened

^http://www.stillwildstillthreatened.org/

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‘Mutant Legislation:  a thinned out Tasmanian Forests Agreement

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On the evening of 30th April 2013, Tasmania’s Parliament passed the Tasmanian Forests Agreement Bill 2012 into law.

The legislation formalises a revised agreement between selective Tasmanian environmental organisations, selective Tasmanian logging business associations, the Tasmanian Parliament and the Australian Government.

The original Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) signed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Tasmania’s Premier Lara Giddings on 7 August 2011 in Launceston.   But instead of honouring the letter and spirit of the 2011 agreement to protect 572,000 hectares of Tasmania’s remaining high conservation forests protected, the resultant law has thinned out that protection down to a forest area of just 20% of the 572,000, to just 123,000 hectares.

Supposedly, the legislation proposes 500,000ha of reserves in 18 months’ time, providing the durability of the deal has been established.   Weasel words and 76,000 of the 576,000 hectares of old growth sacrificed by those whom we entrusted to protect habitat.

The passing of the Bill was a culmination of a period of closed door negotiations between the selected environmentalists and the selected loggers.  Despite compromising 80% of the high conservation forest, the legal outcome sees absolutely no compromise from the loggers.  The loggers still stand to be compensated the same $276 million in federal restructure assistance, purported blowing out to $350 million, and that is on top of millions already forked out to exiting loggers.

The environmental signatories of forest betrayal in the deal include The Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Environment Tasmania.   The selected loggers were dominated by a certain Terry Edwards, chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania (FIAT) and Glenn Britton, its chairman, both who stand to profit.

[Source:  Act now on forest truce: PM’, 20130501, by AAP, in The Mercury (News Ltd),  ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/05/01/378268_tasmania-news.html]

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Three years ago in 2010, the Signatories to the Tasmanian Forest Statement

agreed on protecting the full 572,000 hectares

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Ed:  Suited up company men, but was any a Real Man?

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“Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat.

Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.”

~ Andrew Carnegie

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The destruction continues and so the protests will continue.   Dumb outcome! 

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Two months prior on 4th March 2013, two conservationists were arrested at Tasmania’s Butlers Gorge as they tried to block logger access to three separate logging operations in an area nominated for World Heritage.

<<“Today’s peaceful protest has once again highlighted the ongoing destruction of Butlers Gorge. This area is significant habitat for endangered species and native wildlife. Still Wild Still Threatened have collected video evidence of Tasmanian devils and spot tailed quolls within Butlers Gorge and we are calling on Tony Burke to take action to protect these forests” said Ms Gibson.

“Two dedicated conservationists have today been arrested in order to bring attention to the hypocrisy of the Australian Government, who are allowing this logging to continue despite nominating these forests for World Heritage.  (Federal) Minister Burke as a responsibility to protect the habitat of these endangered species and to protect these forests that he has nominated as World Heritage. We are calling on the Minister to enact Section 14 of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and bring an end to the destruction of these forests” said Ms Gibson.>>

[Source: ‘Two conservationists arrested at Butlers Gorge today’, Mar 5, 2013, Miranda Gibson, The Observer Tree, ^http://observertree.org/2013/03/05/media-update-two-conservationists-arrested-at-butlers-gorge-today/]

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2nd March 2013:  Local environmentalists protesting against the logging of World Heritage value old growth forests of Butlers Gorge

[Source:  ^http://observertree.org/2013/03/05/media-update-two-conservationists-arrested-at-butlers-gorge-today/]

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Ed:  Real Tasmanians out there defending disappearing ancient forests – just a committed five on a remote bridge forming the last and only line of defence to prevent logging trucks, corporate loggers, and corrupt Tasmanian police who know the arsonists that set fire to peaceful Camp Flozza and to the forest west.

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<<The evil when loggers control forests is that logging vandalism rapes the timber from the forest ecology.  It leaves behind scorched earth and trusting contractors who took out mortgages.  When ecological management ascends to its rightful governance of native forests, the forest ecology thrives and permits at its fringes a viable high end cabinet industry.

But the low life corporate thieves and their immoral mercenaries are forced to inflict their hate and greed elsewhere.  And then out of spite, Bob’s mercenaries set fire to the forest like a spouse scorned.>>

~ Tigerquoll, 20130327, Tasmanian Times, comment ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/dear-bob-this-is-the-21st-century-/show_comments/

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A Loggers Deal

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3rd May:  Conservation beliefs sacrificed down the drain

(analysis of the 2013 Forest Deal by Tasmanian author, Richard Flanagan)

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<<So Julia Gillard has declared that she wants the parties who started the so-called Tasmanian forest peace process “to do everything they can to use their abilities to silence those who haven’t gone with the mainstream consensus”.

To silence.

I lived with the silence of Tasmania for too many years. And now the leaders of The Wilderness Society, Environment Tasmania, the ACF and the Tasmanian Greens have signed up to a deal that seeks to achieve what even Gunns failed in doing: silencing the rage Tasmanians felt with the destruction of their land and the corruption of public life that for a time became its necessary corollary. It is perhaps the greatest own goal in Australian political history.

For these environmentalists have managed to negotiate a deal that extraordinarily manages to resuscitate at vast public subsidy (reportedly $350 million) the worst aspects of a dead forest industry employing less than a thousand people; lock in social conflict for another decade; empower in Forestry Tasmania a rogue government agency that sees itself as the real power on the island and which works to undermine governments; and delivered the island to political stagnation by ensuring forestry remains the island’s defining political issue.

If this wasn’t grotesque enough the Federal Government’s National Audit Office’s report into the mishandling and misspending of some of the early rounds of this money by Tasmanian government instrumentalities can give the Australian taxpayer every confidence that much of the rest of the $350 million will be misspent, misdirected and misused. Taxpayers can also be assured that if past government bail-outs of the Tasmanian forest industry are any guide, a not insignificant sum of their money will end up funding political groups and campaigns seeking to promote the self-serving interests of a Soviet style industry by entrenching division and stymying political debate and economic change in Tasmania. Some millions of dollars allocated for ‘communications’ will no doubt communicate very well just one message about Tasmania’s logging industry.

And all this in return for what?

The only environmental outcome that is locked in was one already in place: the 123,000 hectares of World Heritage Area secured by Bob Brown and Christine Milne in negotiations with Tony Burke in February. And this in the face of initial opposition from NGO negotiators who worried it might damage their forest deal process. Nick McKim’s claim that there was “legislated protection from logging for over 500,000 hectares”, is misleading.  There is a moratorium on logging in those high conservation value forests that could fall over at any time, and almost certainly will.

Richard Flanagan

(Author of this extracted article)

[Source:  Photo by Colin Macdougall, Tasmanian Times,

^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/i-dont-agree/]

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Astonishingly, in a day that will become historic in their own annals, the environmentalists’ leaders have managed to split their own movement in a way that will take many years for it to recover from. The greatest sadness is that it locks Tasmania into a conflict it should have ended.

Beyond that there is only what State Greens leader Nick McKim and Environment Tasmania head Phill Pullinger have called ‘pathways’ to future environmental outcomes.

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Pathways?  What is a pathway?  Is it a forest?  Is it a job?

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Well, no, it’s nothing really, just a confusion of two words, management babble disguising the truth that everything else is but a promise that may or may not happen later.

The formal protection of areas as reserves and national parks will not begin until October 2014, and then only if conservationists meet conditions that realistically will never be met.
Of the many disturbing aspects of the deal, perhaps the most grotesque is the already infamous ‘durability’ clause, under which conservation leaders sitting on a special council with loggers are expected to police and silence conservationists who protest. If they fail to silence their own, the deal is seen to have failed its durability criteria and new reserves promised in the deal do not go ahead and return to the loggers. But of course people will protest and they will be right to protest. The only thing the deal guarantees is the conservation movement at war with itself. Some deal. Some durability. The conservationists’ leaders may as well have self-immolated at the foot of Parliament House.

The second condition is that the forestry industry achieve Forestry Stewardship Council accreditation for its logging — something the industry spat on when conservationists urged it several years ago. Given its abysmal record and third world practices along with inevitable community opposition, this seems as likely as Julia Gillard winning The Voice. But the condition locks in those conservation groups that are signatories to the deal to campaigning for the industry’s logging practices, no matter how dreadful they are, in order to keep alive the promise of saving the forests.

Compounding these perversities there is the simple matter of power. By October 2014, all observers expect Liberal governments to be in power in both Tasmania and federally. In Tasmania the Liberal Party has been explicit that it will tear up the agreement. What then of the moratorium? Well it ends with those areas being once more logged using taxpayer subsidies.

Many fear that both governments will endorse and subsidise a grotesque new forest industry that logs native forest to fuel forest furnaces—so called bio-mass electricity generators — that could by government fiat be defined as a renewable energy source.

Such then is the pathway chosen.

It is possible for good people for the best of reasons to sometimes do the worst of things. If the integrity of the leaders of the environmental NGOs and the Tasmanian Greens Party should not be questioned, their judgement certainly can. Full credit though must go to Terry Edwards of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, Evan Rolley running the dubious state-subsidised Malay-owned Ta Ann, and Bob Gordon and Bob Annells at Forestry Tasmania. From a position of almost complete defeat they have returned the forestry industry to its pre–eminent position in Tasmanian public life and persuaded the environment movement to destroy itself. With bluster, flattery, bullying, and dogged persistence they have achieved the near impossible.

But if you care about the environment in Australia you will henceforth have to ask whether The Wilderness Society and the Australian Conservation Foundation any longer serve your interests. Will they in the future question and campaign against corporate power or will they side with it as they have in Tasmania, recently trooping off to Japan to promote the Malay forest veneer company Ta Ann’s products? Will they stand up to governments or will they be seduced by their attentions, believing the flattering lie that their way is the way of environmental politics in the future?

While nationally the Greens Party under Christine Milne has been resolute in defending the environment and Tasmania’s forests, Tasmanian environmentalists would be right to ask if the Tasmanian parliamentary Greens (other than Kim Booth who showed courage in voting against the bill and his party) any longer particularly represent their interest or aspirations. At the forthcoming state election there would be many reasons for environmentalists to not vote Green and very few to support them. In their determination to achieve respectability, they seem to have become simply the third aspect of a conservative Tasmanian polity with no ideas or vision for the future. Could it be, that for Nick McKim, the decision to support the package proves his Meg Lees moment?    [Ed:  In 1999, Democrats leader Meg Lees sided with then PM John Howard to enable his GST law to be passed, broadly viewed as a decision of betrayal that instigated the eventual downfall of the Democrats].

Julia Gillard’s celebration of the peace deal and her call for silencing came on May Day, the day that celebrates all those who went against the ‘mainstream consensus’ that workers shouldn’t be paid a living wage, that workers shouldn’t be treated with respect and dignity. Democracy is about many things, but silence and silencing are the death of democracy.
The forest peace deal was born in ignominy, with Gunns seeking to set up a native-forest-for-pulp-mill swap, a fact denied by environmental leaders at the time but acknowledged by Premier Lara Giddings in parliament. It continued in secrecy and was oiled with evasions, and concludes as a tragedy for Tasmania. Somehow, the conservationist leaders—instead of using the commercial death of the logging industry, changing social values, and new ideas of a renascent Tasmania to help build a different, better and united society — have condemned us all to endlessly repeat the sadness of recent decades.

I am writing this for all the people who for the last thirty years have stood up again and again against the Tasmanian ‘mainstream concensus’— who stood up for the land they loved and for an idea of a better Tasmania. They have watched, ever more distraught, as their battle has culminated in the last three years of secret deal making that has sold their sacrifices and beliefs down the drain.

At the end the only certainty and hope I have is this: I never signed up to the forest deal, not then and certainly not now. I don’t give a damn for durability clauses and special councils of loggers and conservation police. And I didn’t agree to be silenced, not by Paul Lennon, not by Gunns, and I won’t be now by The Wilderness Society and the ACF.

And in all this, I know I am very far from alone.>>

[Source:  ‘I don’t agree’, by Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan, 20130503, Tasmanian Times, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/i-dont-agree/]

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[Ed:  Hear, hear!]

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1st May:  Forest advocates have become the greenwash industry brigade

(analysis of the 2013 Forest Deal by honourable Tasmanian Environmentalists)

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Honourable environmental organisations in Tasmania have vowed to up the ante on forest protests after the passing of the 2013 Tasmanian Forests Law.

Groups on the outside of the tent for the peace talks, including Still Wild Still Threatened and The Huon Valley Environment Centre, said this morning they would continue to campaign against the state’s forestry industry.

“We are absolutely committed to continue to protest and take action for these forests,” Still Wild Still Threatened spokeswoman Miranda Gibson said.  “These forests, while they are continuing to fall, the community will stand up and … communicate to the markets about what is happening in Tasmania.”

Ms Gibson, who recently ended a marathon tree-sit in southern Tasmania, and Huon Valley Environment Centre’s spokeswoman Jenny Weber said the TFA provided no guarantees for future reserves.

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“A bill that lacks conservation assurances

and props up a collapsing and unviable destructive native forestry industry.”

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The legislation underpinning the deal, which passed the Tasmanian Parliament yesterday, proposes 500,000ha of reserves in 18 months’ time, providing the durability of the deal has been established.

Ms Weber said environmental organisations not associated with the ‘Agreement’ could deliver better outcomes than the environmental signatories.

“The legislation yesterday saw a very large void come in the environment movement,” she said.  “We have seen environment groups vacate the space as forest advocates and move into becoming the greenwash industry brigade.”

The bill passed in Tasmania’s House of Assembly yesterday is primarily yet another industry lifeline and has betrayed the environment.

Grass-roots environment organisations have been left stunned that a bill that lacks conservation assurances and props up a collapsing and unviable destructive native forestry industry has passed with support of some Greens parliamentarians.

Still Wild Still Threatened and Huon Valley Environment Centre have renewed their commitment to forest protection advocacy in all forms.

Huon Valley Environment Centre’s spokesperson Jenny Weber stated, “Today we are far from assurances of protection for Tasmania’s wild forests. The passing of this legislation, that is very pro-industry with merely a conservation veneer, does not deliver any upfront forest reserves.

 

Environmental Activists Jenny Weber, left, and Miranda Gibson

outside Tasmania’s Parliament House, Hobart, 20130501

[Source:  Photo by Sam Rosewarne, The Mercury,

^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/05/01/378238_tasmania-news.html]

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Logging will continue inside the proposed reserves, as there are areas of forest that were excised from the proposed reserves to meet the logging schedule.

“This legislation fails the wild forests, and we will be there to provide scrutiny of a forestry industry that has not made any commitment to changing environmentally destructive practices,” Jenny Weber said.

Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Miranda Gibson stated:

“In response to the Forest Bill passed by the House of Assembly yesterday, the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Still Wild Still Threatened have vowed to continue to campaign for Tasmania’s forests. The legislation entrenches and props up the unviable native forest industry and ongoing logging of high conservation value forests, while making the attainment of new reserves virtually impossible. Conservation outcomes have been undeniably sidelined. Those groups and members of the Tasmanian State Greens who have supported this bill have aligned themselves with the collapsing forestry industry at the expense of our forests.”

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Jenny Weber of The Huon Valley Environment Centre

talking to the media at a protest outside foreign corporate logger, Ta Ann’s Hobart headquarters  (October 2012.)

[Source: ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/11/07/365524_tasmania-news.html]

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Huon Valley Environment Centre’s Jenny Weber:

“We are alarmed by the threat to curtail freedom of speech and the rights of protest out of yesterday’s legislation, which attempts to blackmail the community into silence by holding forests at ransom. These are undemocratic tactics to silence the voice of the community and benefit the forestry industry. The new clause provides the opportunity for either House of Government to determine what constitutes a failure of durability, including substantial active protests or substantial market disruption, and once that determination is made, reserves do not proceed.”

“When one wades through all the spin being propagated by parliamentarians and signatories to the TFA, forestry in Tasmania is at the point where it continues to drain public resources and destroy irreplaceable ecosystems. It has tarnished Tasmania’s brand by not recognising the value of unique native forests and by maintaining unsustainable resource management practices coupled with a wasteful and irresponsible on-the-ground approach. If that wasn’t enough, they have created a green-wash industry for Hamid Sepawi’s Ta Ann and those connected with Sarawak timber mafias and human rights violators. What is clear out of this process is that Ta Ann has received ongoing parliamentary support in Tasmania and now a green-wash tick from some environment groups.  We will continue to oppose the ongoing operations of this company in Tasmania and Sarawak.”

“As The Wilderness Society, Environment Tasmania and the Australian Conservation Foundation are now committed to forsaking the role of forest advocacy and have become the green-mouthpiece for a forestry industry, who yesterday claimed they got everything they wanted out of the of the TFA process and consistently refuses to make necessary changes to their out-dated, destructive and reprehensible practices, our organisations will redouble our efforts to campaign for the protection of intact natural ecosystems.”

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Miranda Gibson in ObserverTree

^http://observertree.org/

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Still Wild Still Threatened’s Miranda Gibson:

“The native forest industry is not economically viable when left to stand on it’s own two feet. Yet, the House of Assembly has just passed a bill that will continue to prop up this out-dated and unviable industry with tax payer funds whilst disregarding community concerns and scientific recommendations for forest protection.” 

“It is delusional to believe that this bill will deliver adequate forest protection. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of verified high conservation value forests are being held to ransom, with protection subject not only to durability measures at the whim of both houses of Tasmania’s parliament, but also dependent on FSC certification. Under this bill high conservation value forests will continue to fall and human rights violations tacitly accepted. As long as they do, we will continue stand up for those ecosystems, forests, communities and cultures that are threatened.”

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[Source:  Miranda Gibson spokesperson for Still Wild Still Threatened, and Jenny Weber spokesperson for Huon Valley Environment Centre, ^http://www.stillwildstillthreatened.org/current-news/media-release-1.05.13-long-haul-tasmanian-forest-protection-delivered-if-ever…]

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“We are absolutely committed to continue to protest and take action for these forests.”

~ Still Wild Still Threatened spokeswoman Miranda Gibson.

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1st May:    Let’s not pretend agreements come from a small number of people who hold up a sign.

(Australia’s Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke)

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<<‘Let’s not pretend that you’re ever going to get an agreement that will stop there from being a group of… you know… a small number of people who hold up a sign.

But let’s also not forget that in this group you’ve got the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and Environment Tasmania as the ‘umbrella group’ and you’ve got all of those groups on side with the Agreement, it means you cannot get an effective market campaign that wll damage the Australian market any more.  And that… is a massive shift. And when you take out all the peak groups and have all of them on-side with the Agreement, that makes a massive difference to markets for Tasmania.

You’ll get the odd skirmish from small minor… minor groups and things like that. Yeah and I don’t want to set a silly threshold. What we have seen from the last thirty years – ends tonight. And that is something to celebrate.”

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[Source:  ‘Christine Milne: ‘Picking over a dead carcass’, via David Obendorf, Tasmanian Times, 20130501, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/christine-milne-picking-over-a-dead-carcass]

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Tony Burke – a smiling eco-assassin

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[Ed: Populist utilitarian politicking that foresakes deontological ethics is cowardly.  It serves the preservation of one’s vested interests, leaving behind a sullied reputation in the minds of ordinary people.   Burke has shown himself to be but a smiling eco-assassin, perhaps eyeing his polly pension before September.

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Burke is clearly ignorant of the magic of Margaret Mead who famously said: 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

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..and who also famously said..

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“Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.”]

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1st May:   It is the carcass of that Agreement..people picking over the scraps, deciding what can be salvaged or not

(Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne)

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<<What started out as a process to exit native forest logging has turned into a process to entrench native forest logging, to have ET, TWS and ACF promote FSC certification for native forest logging and also to subsidise that native forest logging with tax-payer dollars… and there are no secure conservation outcomes except the World Heritage extensions and I do congratulate everyone involved in that, including the federal Minister [Tony Burke] and I look forward to the world Heritage nomination going through in June [2013].  But that is the only secure outcome everything else has been pushed onto the never-never… beyond the federal and the next State election.

So this so called ‘conservation gain’ is a moratorium that can’t be translated into permanent reserves until after October 2014 and then only if FSC certification for Tasmanian native forest logging goes through, if in the eyes of the Legislative Council the community has been silenced and there have been no markets campaign… and then also, only if the Minister decides to make a reserve order. And if he or she doesn’t, then the whole thing falls over. The Moratorium lapses and the legislation lapses and the sawlog quota is restored to 300,000 cubic meters.

And these conservation groups adjudicate through this ‘Special Council’ which is dominated by the forest industry; to adjudicate on the behaviour of whether or not the community has been silenced adequately for the Legislative Council.

The problem is the Legislative Council destroyed the Tasmanian Forest Agreement; they completely destroyed the legislation and the integrity of the deal and all that the Tasmanian House of Assembly is now doing is picking over a dead carcass, actually.

The integrity of the whole agreement is gone.  It went horribly wrong when Lara Giddings decides to allow her leader of the Government in the Legislative Council to support these appalling amendments and essential means the whole thing lost any momentum in terms of protection.

And I fear that the same thing is going to happen… always… millions of federal dollars pour into the logging industry, as Tony Mulder has said that he wants; get the federal dollars, get the industry to rebuild and take a knife to the conservation outcomes and this what is exactly going to happen.

The Giddings Government ought to have upheld the Agreement; that was what everybody said that they would do. And the Government should have taken on the Legislative Council, sent the Bill back unamended – the sense of taking out the Legislative Council amendments – sent it back and said this is the Agreement that has the support of the State and federal governments, now pass it. And it basically would have been a serious taking on of the Legislative Council. Instead of that, the Giddings Government backed away and the ENGOs have allowed them to do so… as have the logging NGOs, and left the House of Assembly picking over the scraps of what has been an Agreement that was hard fought. So that’s what I mean when

I say the Agreement is over.  The Tasmanian Forest Agreement is now null and void … the environment groups throughout the State never signed on to the kinds of compromises that have now been agreed by the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly.

They didn’t ever agree to that; I certainly didn’t ever agree to the idea that you should hold the reservation of a forest area ransom to a decision by a Special Council as to whether or not they think that the community has behaved well enough and been quiet and hasn’t gone and protested. And if that is the case then they hold to ransom granting a reserve.

You cannot silence a community in that way… you just simply cannot take away people’s freedom of speech and right to protest and to stand up for what they believe in … and that is a shocking precedent which would undermine forest campaign communities right around the country… if that was to be upheld.  … This trumped up little police force (the Special Council) that will write its report to the Legislative Council to make a judgement as to whether they will ever reserve an area will be found to be illegal.

The Tasmanian Greens were put in an appalling position because the TFA was destroyed in the Legislative Council and Lara Giddings allowed it to be so. She should have stood up and agreed to the integrity of that Agreement being maintained. She didn’t… and the ENGOS didn’t. The Environmental NGOs hand-balled a particularly disgraceful situation to the Tasmanian House of Assembly and the Tasmanian Greens had to do what was the best in the circumstances.

What you got is basically the carcass of that Agreement and people picking over the scraps and deciding what can be salvaged or not.  And I have a different view about that than the Tasmanian Greens…. But I also have a national responsibility. And so when I look at this, I can’t possibly allow a national precedent whereby you have these silencing provisions. I can’t have a situation where you say to a third-party body like the Forest Stewardship Council globally that unless they give Forestry Tasmania FSC certification then areas won’t be reserved.

And I certainly can’t have a situation where in the future reservation depends on whether a Minister decides to bother putting up a reserve order… and if they don’t it all falls over.
If there is a Liberal Government it’s inevitable that these areas will never be reserved. And it has always been my view is that the only reservation we are going to see is the World Heritage nomination which will go through in June ahead of the federal election.

I really welcome the World Heritage extension; it’s something that I was fighting for back in 1989 with Bob Brown and Peg Putt and others and it’s fantastic that at last what was held up by Michael Field and David Llewellyn and others then will now go into World Heritage. And all this talk about ‘great forest conservation outcomes’ is, I think, just talk.

Certainly everyone is going to say what they agreed to was the Tasmanian Forest Agreement and that is not what has been legislated. So, I think people will feel free to be out there campaigning for their forest areas because they are not going to stay silent waiting for after October 2014 to see what the Legislative Council or a future Tasmanian Government might do then.>>

[Source:  ‘Christine Milne: ‘Picking over a dead carcass’, via David Obendorf, Tasmanian Times, 20130501, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/christine-milne-picking-over-a-dead-carcass]

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30th April:   It is not in letter or in spirit anything like what was agreed

(Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne)

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<<In Tasmania after many years and deliberations it is now clear that the Tasmanian Forest Agreement 2012 is dead. It died in the Upper House when the Legislative Council in Tasmania took a chainsaw to this agreement and destroyed its integrity.

There is no other way of looking at what has happened.

Even the signatories acknowledge that what is now before the Parliament is not in letter or in spirit anything like what was agreed. Tony Mulder who moved one of the devastating amendments in the Upper House has subsequently said that his intention was to take the Federal money, watch the deal fall over and take a sword to the environment outcomes. And that’s precisely what the Legislative Council has done. So make no mistake, the Legislative Council destroyed this Tasmanian Forest Agreement in which so many people had put their hopes, their faith, hours of work, years of deliberation and it’s over. What is now going to happen in the Tasmanian House of Assembly is a raking over of the ashes, trying to find in the devastation something to salvage.

Well the one good thing that has been salvaged already regardless of what they do over there the World Heritage nomination. The Federal Government has nominated those fantastic high conservation value forests on the eastern boundary of the World Heritage area to be World Heritage and that will go before the World Heritage meeting in June this year and that is going to be something for us all to celebrate, after some more than 20 years of deliberation.

But frankly as the leader of the Australian Greens there is no way that I am prepared to see pulled out of the rubble that’s come before the House of Assembly the absolute desperation salvage. There’s no way that there are some fundamental principles that can be countenanced. So the first one is the Legislative Council has put off into the never-never the reserves which were supposed to be immediately protected. The second tranche has been put off until October 2014 beyond the next federal and state election. It is on the never-never and it is particularly on the never-never because it doesn’t even require that the legislation be repealed for the whole deal to fall over and for the 300,000 cubic metre sawlog quota to be restored, all it takes is for a minister to do nothing. Not to act in the specified timeframe revokes the entire piece of legislation.

But equally as the leader of the Australian Greens there is no way I can countenance the idea that the community’s freedom of speech will be curtailed – the freedom to protest, the freedom of speech to be curtailed. There is absolutely no way that you can say to the Tasmanian community if you have a protest, if you speak out about the rubble and the mess that’s been created then the Legislative Council through the special council that’s been set up can determine that reserves will not be gazetted. That just simply is unacceptable in a democracy.

You cannot see the community’s freedom of speech curtailed in that way. Equally it is a nonsense to say that a minister must take the advice of an unelected special council, especially one that has, it’s just an appointed special council, it’s going to be stacked with the logging industry, but a minister has responsibilities and a minister must be subject to judicial review through the courts and they simply don’t have the power to say to a minister that you must take the advice of an unelected appointed council. And it is this unelected appointed council which will be the jury as to whether the Tasmanian community has behaved appropriately or not.

What sort of nonsense is that?

It is also ridiculous to put in a provision that says that according to the ‘Special Council‘ or anyone else areas that have been protected if any indeed beyond the first tranche ever get protected can be logged for special timbers and that all the residues, that is woodchips associated with that, can then be generated. So you are putting in jeopardy anything that has been protected will be vulnerable.

The other big problem with it is the idea that you can say that an area that has been assessed as worthy of protection as a reserve will not be reserved unless a third party, the Forest Stewardship Council, is blackmailed into saying that Forestry Tasmania can get certification. This is an international organisation, the Forest Stewardship Council, the Legislative Council is bringing Tasmania into disrepute globally.

If Forestry Tasmania want Forest Stewardship Council certification then they have to change their practices to earn it. The Legislative Council cannot blackmail the FSC into giving certification or else the conservation movement and people who care can’t have reserves that are scientifically determined and valid as reserves. These are things which we simply cannot accept and in fact it’s an absurdity.  Anyone looking at this would say this is absurd.

And there is no way as leader of the Australian Greens that I could see allowing a precedent of this kind to be set to suggest that other states around the country might think it was a good idea to set up such anti-democratic processes and attempts at blackmail as the Legislative Council have done. So as of now if this legislation passes in the House of Assembly then clearly this in my view the Tasmanian Forest agreement is over, finished, done, dusted and we are now going to see a convoluted scrambling around in the ashes trying to salvage something and the only durable thing that will be salvaged is the World Heritage nomination.

But even then I wouldn’t put it past the Legislative Council to try and scuttle that in the month or so before the World Heritage committee actually meets to discuss it.

JOURNALIST:    The signatories and the State Greens are supporting it though, doesn’t that put you of at odds with your state counterparts?

CHRISTINE MILNE:   No it doesn’t.

My Tasmanian counterparts will determine whatever they do in terms of the salvage operation but I can tell you that you that across the Australian Greens and the Tasmanian Greens we are all agreed that the Tasmanian Forest Agreement is dead. It was killed in the Upper House and the signatories also acknowledged it is dead in terms of the spirit and the letter of what was agreed.

Let’s go back through the process – there was a process, the signatories agreed, the Parliament translated that into legislation which went before the Parliament.

It was unamended in the Lower House in terms of those principles but the Legislative Council destroyed it. So we’re all agreed, the deal is dead, there are differences of opinion that may emerge. I have heard what the signatories have had to say and frankly putting your faith in Forestry Tasmania is an extraordinary turn of events and I say that because Forestry Tasmania has already breached the spirit of the deal just as the Federal Government was buying out forest contractors, Forestry Tasmania was extending the contracts that they have to take up the difference. So taxpayers’ money was going out the backdoor to pay out contractors and Forestry Tasmania was extending the contracts.

So what Forestry Tasmania has to say they stand on their record and they have not been restructured. But that’s up to the signatories, they can do as they like, the agreement is dead.

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But isn’t that something better than nothing?

No. The fact is these reserves will never be delivered, they are on the never-never.

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JOURNALIST:   Will this deal achieve peace?

CHRISTINE MILNE:    No, the forest peace deal is over.

The original deal was what was designed to try and bring about a lasting end to the debate on forests in Tasmania. But the Legislative Council destroyed it. They are the ones who have ripped up the peace agreement, the Tasmanian Forest Agreement and they are the ones who have laid it to waste, and left now a legacy of what will just be a scrambling around in the ashes to try and salvage something.

JOURNALIST:    But isn’t that something better than nothing?

CHRISTINE MILNE:    The issue here is when you are scrambling around in the ashes trying to salvage something it comes to the issue of principle.

The fact is these reserves will never be delivered, they are on the never-never until after 2014, October 2014, beyond a state and federal election. But equally as I said it can be overturned at any time by a minister just deciding not to proceed with those reserve orders.

JOURNALIST:    So saying that you think it’s completely dead, how strongly do you like to see it rejected in the Lower House?

CHRISTINE MILNE:     Well it doesn’t matter what they do in the Lower House because it’s just going to set up a convoluted process that people are going to fight over indefinitely.

It has already died so whatever they do in the House of Assembly now unless it went back to the Upper House unamended and they took on the Upper House and maintained the original agreement, if that happened well then let’s talk about that. But it’s clear from the signatories’ statement this morning that they are prepared to abandon their original deal and just work in the ashes.

JOURNALIST:    Do you regret criticising the legislation before the signatories had even arrived at their decision?

CHRISTINE MILNE:  Not at all, in fact it was obvious to anyone who assessed what was going on in the Legislative Council that the Forest Agreement was dead the minute that the leader of the Government in the Upper House backed the Mulder amendment.

The minute that the leader of the Government gave away Lara Giddings’ position that she was prepared to sell out the integrity of the agreement, it was clear what the Government would do. So from that point it was over and I think there should have been a stand taken against the Legislative Council and for the forests and the integrity of the agreement at that time. It didn’t happen and now we are in where we inevitably were going to end up.

JOURNALIST:   Do you think environmentalists are naïve for believing the reserves will happen even if they’re not legislated?

CHRISTINE MILNE:   It is clear to me that the reserves are on the never-never.

Saying that the reserves in the second tranche won’t be considered until after October 2014, after a federal and state election is absolutely out there in my view, that says they will never be achieved. But equally saying that either House of Parliament can reject it on the basis of a criticism that the community might be speaking out too much or somebody might have had a protest somewhere, jeopardising that freedom of speech and right to protest inevitably this is over.

It is a fantasy to think that those reserves will ever be delivered beyond the first tranche and that is why the only salvageable thing here is the World Heritage nomination and I congratulate the Federal Government for putting that nomination into the meeting in June and I look forward to those forests going onto the World Heritage list.

JOURNALIST:   Doesn’t this kind of put you at odds though with the State Greens? They will back the legislation this afternoon so essentially they are backing the environmental signatories yet you are not.

CHRISTINE MILNE:    I’m saying that the agreement is dead and I have no doubt that they also believe it is dead.

Everyone who reads this sees quite clearly that the minute the Legislative Council tore up the fundamentals of the agreement and the environmental NGOs have said that this morning.

What is now before the Parliament isn’t the Tasmanian Forest Agreement, it is a remnant, it is the burnt ashes of what went up to the Legislative Council and they’re into a salvage operation. Whatever people get out of a salvage operation they get out of it, but the agreement is dead and that is something which everybody, the ENGOs, the Tasmanian and the Australian Greens all agree on.

JOURNALIST:    Given then that Prime Minister Julia Gillard is now horribly short of cash will you be petitioning her, lobbying her to pull some of the money that’s on the table for the TFA as it isn’t going to achieve what it said it was supposed to surely that money could be better spent elsewhere than propping up the logging industry I think you would say.

CHRISTINE MILNE:   Well certainly the Australian Greens have argued throughout this process, Bob Brown did before I took over the leadership and then I did subsequently, that the money ought not to be flowing into Tasmania until the conservation outcomes are delivered, that there should be tranches where you get conservation outcomes and money flowing in.

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“The forest contractors’ grants were paid, Forestry Tasmania extended the contracts.”

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What now happens in terms of federal funding with that legislation will happen, that will be part of the ongoing agreement but the fact of the matter is the agreement as such is dead. All of the assumptions that were made about where the forest industry goes the future just aren’t on the table as even Terry Edwards I believe has said this is going to be a long, drawn-out, convoluted process and goodness only knows what happens but clearly we’re in a federal election year and I think the Commonwealth will take whatever action it chooses, they will make those decisions, but it is Lara Giddings who directed no doubt her leader of Government in the Upper House to be part of blowing up the integrity of the deal.

JOURNALIST:    You’ve just said that the conflict won’t end, surely it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money if the Federal Government continues to pay out this $300 million and we don’t see peace?

CHRISTINE MILNE:    Well that’s a decision for the Commonwealth and the Tasmanian Government to make, how the money is spent.

Clearly it was my preference to see Forestry Tasmania restructured. The industry restructured, that money needs to be spent if it is going to flow into regional development, not as Tony Mulder would say take the Commonwealth dollars, rebuild the industry on the back of subsidies, and take a knife to the conservation outcomes, that would be a very bad outcome for Tasmania.

JOURNALIST:    But you won’t be asking the Prime Minister to pull the funding at all?

CHRISTINE MILNE:   I’ll be talking to the Federal Government about the budget this year, but I’m not entering into the negotiations between what the State and Federal Governments do over funding, I will consider whatever is on the table after the debate in the House of Assembly and whatever else is determined but clearly I have taken the forest exit grants through a Senate Committee process and I will be watching very clearly how every cent is spent.

JOURNALIST:    Are you disappointed with people like Phil Pullinger and Vica Bailey for saying that they will continue to back the deal when clearly it doesn’t deliver what environmentalists hoped it would?

CHRISTINE MILNE:    The signatories to the agreement will do whatever they think is best and they are entitled to do that, I just don’t agree with outcome that they have reached.

The forest deal was destroyed in the Legislative Council and at that point there should have been a standing up to the Legislative Council. Now there is a salvage strategy at best, a picking over the bones of the dead body and they will do that in good faith, but it doesn’t alter the fact that the investment of time and energy, the aspirations and what was agreed are all gone.

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[Source:  ‘Mining tax, budget, Tasmanian Forest Agreement, asylum seekers’  (extract),  by Christine Milne, Australian Greens Leader, 20130430, Tasmanian Times, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/pr-article/christine-milne-transcript-mining-tax-budget-tasmanian-forest-/]

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[Ed:  Strong words, but delivered in the shadow of Parliamentary enactment.  The Greens have abandoned their forest conservation roots in Tasmania for the distraction of a humanist agenda on the thinned out rationale of becoming a multi-issue party to secure a broader membership base.  Broad appeasing agendas have tragically thinned focus away from core commitment to conservation].

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30th April:  Anyone in any doubt about the importance of this deal to the forest industry need only look to the strong endorsement of companies like Ta Ann, Artec, Neville Smith Forest Products, Bunnings and our own GBE Forestry Tasmania

(statements by Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings and Deputy Premier Bryan Green)

 

<<..When we set out on this journey nearly three years ago few imagined we could achieve what we have today, Ms Giddings said.  This is indeed a historic turning point for Tasmania.  It marks the point where we can put aside old hostilities and take control of the future of the forest industry by responding to the needs and wants of global customers.

I want to thank the signatories for recognising this historic opportunity and for having the guts, determination and resilience to see it through.  There is no other alternative to the worst downturn Tasmania s forest industry has ever seen.   The stark choice was either to adapt to changing global demands or see more jobs lost and the rapid decline of the industry.

Ms Giddings said the legislation passed in the Parliament today delivered protection for 137,000 hectares of forest with high conservation value, including iconic areas like Tyenna, Hastings, Picton and the Upper Florentine.  It also paves the way for Forest Stewardship Council certification and funding for sawmill buybacks and more than $100 million in new regional development projects.  Anyone in any doubt about the importance of this deal to the forest industry need only look to the strong endorsement of companies like:

• Ta Ann
• Artec
• Neville Smith Forest Products
• Bunnings
• GBE Forestry Tasmania

That is not to mention the hundreds of workers and small sawmillers represented by the signatories, including the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, the Forest Contractors Association and Timber Communities Australia.

On the other side we have the mainstream environmental groups, the heavyweights that campaigned strongly against the forestry industry for decades, committing to actively supporting the industry, including endorsing FSC Certification.

The Liberal Party has been relegated to the sidelines as the chief cheerleader for the carpers, naysayers and change deniers.  They have embarrassingly found themselves on the wrong side of history yet again.

Mr Green said the State Government was totally committed to implementing the Tasmanian Forest Agreement.  We will continue to work with the signatories to implement the milestones of the agreement, Mr Green said.  The Government is in no doubt Tasmanians want this issue fixed.

Agreement has been reached because of the willingness of people to accept the need to adapt to changing market demands and a global downturn.  It has been an extremely difficult time for businesses, forest workers and regional communities.  Now, Tasmania s forest sector and communities around the State can look forward to a much more certain future and the opportunity for this important industry to prosper.

Mr Green said the Government had not wavered in its support of signatories to the agreement.  The Liberal Party has been intent on wrecking the agreement from the start, ignoring the efforts of the industry, unions and ENGOs to reach a lasting resolution.  When strong leadership was needed Mr Hodgman went missing, Mr Green said.

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[Source:  ‘Forest industry future secure’, 20130430, by Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings, and Deputy Premier Bryan Green, Deputy Premier, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/pr-article/forest-industry-future-secure/]

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1st May:  Tasmania’s Upper House has amended this Bill so savagely that it no longer reflects the agreement struck by the forest signatories

(justification for crossing the Floor, Leader of The Tasmanian Greens, Nick McKim MP )

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Tasmanian House of Assembly Hansard:

 

<<Mr Speaker, this amended Bill put before us is a dramatically different Bill to that which left this House last year.  It is by no means a perfect Bill, in fact, it is manifestly imperfect in a number of its provisions.

And it must be said that many of the amendments made by the Upper House defer, or reduce certainty around, conservation outcomes. And that, Mr Speaker, is no coincidence.
There is no doubt that the Upper House has amended this Bill so savagely that it no longer reflects the agreement struck by the forest signatories, and that this House now needs to consider how best to salvage an outcome from the Legislative Council’s wreckage.

The Signatories’ agreement would have given peace in our forests a chance.  But we will now never know how things would have played out if the Signatories’ agreement had been faithfully legislated, because the Upper House has tragically removed that possibility from Tasmania’s future.

But despite the Bill’s imperfections, it still delivers some major conservation gains for Tasmania.  It immediately provides legislated protection from logging for over 500,000 hectares of High Conservation Value forests.  These iconic forests, these carbon banks, these global treasures, in places like the Styx, the Weld, the Huon, the Florentine, the Tasman Peninsula, Bruny Island, the Blue Tiers, the Western Tiers and the Tarkine will for the first time in their history have legislated protection from logging. Simply by the passing of this Bill.

The Bill also provides pathways to the creation of 504,000 ha of new formal reserves, including new national parks, and to the achievement of full Forest Stewardship Council certification by the Tasmanian timber industry.

It is true that there remains uncertainty around new reserves, and that the uncertainty is greater due to the Legislative Council amendments.  But the Bill nevertheless provides an opportunity for these reserves, the chance of an absolutely stunning conservation gain, and the Greens believe Tasmania deserves no less.

And it is true there remains uncertainty around the achievement of full FSC, and that the uncertainty is also greater due to the Legislative Council amendments.  But the Bill nevertheless provides the opportunity and a pathway for the achievement of full FSC, and therefore a potentially remarkable transformation in the way the forest industry conducts itself on the ground in Tasmania. And the Greens believe that Tasmania deserves no less.

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“Those amendments (to the Bill) do not in any way constitute a ban on protests or market campaigns.“

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And importantly, the Bill also reduces the legislated sawlog quota from a minimum of 300,000 m3 to a minimum of 137,000 m3.  These are significant steps towards the implementation of long held Greens policy.

When deciding how to proceed today, the Tasmanian Greens considered many things.

We considered the bitter conflict that has existed over forestry for many decades in Tasmania. A conflict that has placed lives at risk, put jobs in jeopardy, and held Tasmania back from reaching its full potential.

We considered the massive efforts of the Forest Signatories, bitter enemies who came together and who for nearly three years sought in a constructive way to reach agreement on a way forward.

We considered the commitment of current state and commonwealth governments to being part of a solution instead of part of an ongoing problem

We considered the conservation gains I have referred to.

We also considered the letter written to the Signatories yesterday by the Minister for Resources Mr Bryan Green.

We considered that in his letter, Mr Green agreed, amongst many other commitments to:

• Finalise the gazettals of new reserves under the Nature Conservation Act for the World Heritage Area first ‘tranche’ of reserves with the clear intention that this is achieved by the end of this year (2013)
• That there is a new Conservation Agreement under the Commonwealth EPBC Act put in force over the entire 504,000 hectares that doesn’t expire until the gazettal of all new reserves under Schedule A subject to transitional scheduling, which is to be signed by both governments, explicitly including Parks and Wildlife Service, and Forestry Tasmania.
• Transfer the day to day management of the identified future reserve land, the 504, 000hectares, from Forestry Tasmania to Parks and Wildlife Service under a formal service agreement as soon as the Act commences.
• Supporting the Australian government’s undertaking that it will not approve harvesting of wood, including specialty timbers, within World Heritage nominated or listed areas.

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We also considered the Upper House, and our firm belief that to refuse the amendments made by the Upper House, and therefore send the Bill back to the Legislative Council for further consideration, would result in one of only two possible outcomes: either the Bill would be sent back to us in a form that further erodes the conservation gains, or the Bill would die in the Upper House.

We considered that all of the signatories have asked that this Bill be passed through the lower House unamended today.

We considered the statement made yesterday by Mr Bob Annels, Chair of Forestry Tasmania.

A statement in which Mr Annels committed his organization to full Forest Stewardship Council certification, and in which he ruled out logging under any circumstances in the forests nominated for World Heritage status, allowing for a small number of transitional coupes that will be completed within weeks.

We considered the money available from the Commonwealth, the remaining $100 million to assist in the ongoing transformation of Tasmania’s economy that will be one of this Labor-Green government’s greatest legacies to our state.

We considered the $9m per year extra assistance to manage Tasmania’s world class reserve system that will flow should this Bill pass.

We considered the carbon embedded in the forest ecosystems protected from logging, and our responsibility to play a role in reducing global emissions.

We considered that we now have confirmation that the Commonwealth has given a commitment that carbon from forest ecosystems protected by this legislation will be granted additionality, and therefore will be eligible under the Carbon Farming Initiative to be traded nationally and globally on mandatory carbon markets.

Of course, we also considered those parts of the Bill which do not reflect Greens’ policy, including delays in the creation of formal reserves, the maintenance of a legislated minimum sawlog quota of any amount, the sovereign risk provisions, and the amendments which allow either House of the Parliament to use protest or market interference as an excuse to block new Reserves.

I want to be clear that those amendments, which allow either House of the Parliament to use protest or market disruption as an excuse to try and block new reserves do not in any way constitute a ban on protests or market campaigns as some have claimed.

A final consideration included our responsibility to play a constructive role in Tasmanian politics, and to help guide Tasmania to a more prosperous and united future.  We considered the need for a co-operative approach, for people working together to solve Tasmania’s problems rather than lobbing grenades from the trenches.  We believe that’s what the vast majority of Tasmanians want. And that’s what the Greens want to be a part of.

The Greens have had to weigh in the balance the provisions of this Bill that we support, and those that in isolation we would not.  But due to the wreckers in the Upper House, the Tasmanian Greens believe that the Bill as amended is a ‘take it or leave it’ package.  And that is why after long and difficult consideration, the Tasmanian Greens Party Room has decided in accordance with our Party Room rules to vote to accept the amendments from the Upper House and therefore allow this Bill to pass through the Tasmanian Parliament today and become law.>>

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[Source:  ‘Why we voted for the Bill. Silence, says Gillard. Never, says Milne’, 20130502, by Nick McKim MP, Leader of The Tasmanian Greens, Tasmanian Times, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/why-we-voted-for-the-bill/]

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30th April:   The day Kim Booth crossed the floor

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<<Tasmania’s Lower House has passed historic legislation designed to end 30 years of conflict over logging in the state’s native forests.

The final deal will bring almost $400 million worth of state and federal funds to Tasmania to restructure the industry and create new reserves.  But the compromises made along the way have left the Australian Greens to deem the final result almost worthless.

Tasmania’s Parliament passed the crucial legislation on Tuesday evening, 13 votes to 11.

The Premier, Lara Giddings, told Parliament the deal would be an historic turning point and would secure the industry’s future.   “History has shown us that no conflict can go on forever. Every war must come to an end,” she said.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke flew into Hobart to celebrate.  “The rest of Australia has not come close to being able to achieve what Tasmania achieves today, and that is a solid conservation outcome with a solid economic future,” he said.  History has shown us that no conflict can go on forever. Every war must come to an end.

But the mood in the gallery was far from celebratory, with many disappointed over amendments made by the Upper House two weeks ago that effectively delay the creation of formal reserves.

Greens MP Kim Booth was the only member of the Labor-Greens minority Government to cross the floor and vote against the legislation. 

“It does not give protection beyond the World Heritage Area, which I’m very, very pleased has been sent to Paris,” he said.  “It does not give permanent protection to any of the other 504,000 hectares that are mentioned as areas that should be reserved.”

The leader of the Australian Greens, Christine Milne, does not support the deal either.

The vote ends more than three years of negotiation between industry and environmental groups to reduce the amount of logging in native forests.  The deal aims to halve the state’s timber industry and protect a further half a million hectares of forest.  The first 80,000 hectares will be protected immediately.  The rest will not be up for formal protection until at least October next year.

Key environmental groups were upset at the changes made by the Tasmanian Upper House and only decided to support the deal at the last minute.

The Wilderness Society’s Vica Bayley says the Upper House amendments shook the confidence of environmental signatories.  “The amendments don’t reflect the agreement, but what we have done is to try to restore confidence by alternative measures,” he said.  “[They are] things such as transferring the management of future reserves from Forestry Tasmania over to Parks and Wildlife.  “Things like a very strong commitment from Forestry Tasmania not to log the future reserves.  “It is utterly clear that this is the only pathway forward.”

Some environmentalists have vowed to continue protests against the deal.

Resources Minister Bryan Green now has 30 days to table an order to start the process of reserving the forests.  The legislation does not need to go back to the Upper House.
The State Government offered a range of sweeteners to keep the deal alive.

They include:

• Forestry Tasmania to immediately pursue Forest Stewardship Council certification and not log existing reserves or agreed future reserve areas
• The Tasmanian Government to properly resource departments to deal with agreed new reserves
• Federal and State Governments to ban logging in the 500,000 ha of forest earmarked for protection from logging, known as a conservation order
• Forestry Tasmania and both governments to try to cut the number of transitional coupes that will need to be harvested
• Immediately transfer control of the 500-thousand hectares of land from Forestry Tasmania to the Parks and Wildlife Service
• Establish dispute resolution mechanism to deal quickly with any issues that might arise during implementation
• Both governments to work together to ensure the boundary for the World Heritage Area extension meets agreed wood supply while maintaining WHA size and values.

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[Source:   ‘Tasmanian Parliament backs forest peace deal’, 20130501, ABC Hobart, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-30/forest-peace-deal-passes/4661224?section=tas]

30th April (before the Vote):   Dr Phill Pullinger gutted by Upper House changes to the bill but ‘rolled up sleeves’ to make agreement work

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<<…Early this morning, the signatories of the Tasmanian Forests Agreement said despite the changes made to the bill by the Upper House, they could still support the bill and urged the Tasmanian Lower House to pass the amended legislation.

Greens MHA Kim Booth will cross the floor to vote against the bill, splitting from his following Tasmanian Greens members who will be voting for the bill.

Despite Mr Booth’s stance, and the state Liberals not supporting the bill, it’s most likely the bill will pass the Lower House and become law.

Dr Phill Pullinger from Environment Tasmania said they were gutted by the changes made to the bill by the Upper House at first, but said they ‘rolled up their sleeves’ and worked with the other signatories and the Tasmanian Government to work out a way to make the changed agreement still work.   “They’ll be a lot of work yet to be done to make the promise and hope that has sat behind this agreement in this process actually follow through into reality,” said Dr Pullinger.

Dr Pullinger said although the bill is now different from the one the signatories first agreed to, they can still support it and make it work in a positive way for Tasmania’s native forests.  “The legislation will protect all of the half a million hectares that are agreed to be reserved under this agreement from logging, not withstanding a small list of transitional coups, and it does lay out a pathway for those forests to be formally reserved under Tasmania law.”

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Will Hodgman:    “Liberals will undo the deal and the legislation”

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Australian Greens leader Christine Milne announced the deal dead before it was even voted on.

“My Tasmanian counterparts will determine whatever they do in terms of the salvage operation, but I can tell you that the Tasmanian Forest Agreement is dead,” she said.  “It was killed in the Upper House and the signatories also acknowledge it is dead in terms of the spirit and the letter of what was agreed.”

Ms Milne says environmental groups will be ‘picking over the scraps’ of the agreement to try to salvage something positive from it, but she says this bill is not the agreement and this is not the end to Tasmania’s forest wars.

Some non-signatory environmental groups have said the amended deal will not bring peace to the forests and protests are likely to continue.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke arrived in Hobart earlier today to hold talks with the signatories and Tasmanian government.  He said there is no way to ever completely stop protests, but believes the passing of the legislation is an historic moment for Tasmania.

Tasmanian Opposition leader Will Hodgman says should the Liberals win a majority government in the next Tasmanian election, they will undo the deal and the legislation.>>

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[Source:  ‘Is this peace for Tasmania’s forests?’, 20130430, by Louise Saunders and Carol Raabus, ABC Hobart, ^http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/04/30/3748583.htm?site=hobart&ref=m21]

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30th April (before the Vote):  Terry Edwards says the amended legislation is closer to what loggers originally wanted

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<<Tasmania’s Lower House is set to pass legislation aimed at ending decades of conflict in the state’s forest.

Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim says his party will approve the bill, which was heavily amended by the Upper House.  Mr McKim told Parliament the changes mean that there is a chance that new forest reserves will not be created but peace deal signatories had asked the Lower House to pass the bill unamended.

“But the bill nevertheless provides…the chance of an absolutely stunning and historic conservation gain for Tasmania,” he said.

Greens forestry spokesman Kim Booth has indicated he will cross the floor but the Government will still have the numbers to make the peace deal law.

Earlier this month, the Upper House supported the legislation but made significant amendments.  The signatories announced this morning that they would back those amendments.

The Premier, Lara Giddings, told parliament the forest industry will be better off with the peace deal.  “Today is indeed a historic day. Today is indeed an important day for the forestry industry and today the Liberal Party show their true colours – they don’t care.  We will be able to build a new future for Tasmania, a new future for forestry industry.”

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Peter Gutwein:   “Liberals will do everything that we possibly can to unlock every single stick.”

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Bass Liberal MHA Peter Gutwein

[Source:  ^http://www.examiner.com.au/story/87353/gutwein-booted-from-parliament/]

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The Opposition’s Peter Gutwein says in Government, says the passing of the bill will not end the long conflict.  In government, the Liberals will undo any new reserves.  “We will do everything that we possibly can to unlock every single stick,” he said.

Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne says whether or not the deal’s enabling legislation passes State Parliament, it will not resolve conflicts over forest protection.  Senator Milne says in her opinion the peace deal is worthless.   “What is now before the parliament is not the Tasmanian Forest Agreement, it is a remnant, it is the burnt ashes of what went up to the Legislative Council and they’re now into a salvage operation,” she said.

The Lower House is expected to sit late this evening before finalising debate.

…The Forestry Industries Association’s Terry Edwards says the amended legislation is closer to what loggers originally wanted. But he says the environmental NGO signatories are still getting a very good deal.

“There’s no doubt that the amendments made in the Legislative Council probably went further towards what we had originally bargained for,” he said.  “But that said, if the bill couldn’t deliver on the ENGOs’ outcomes, then it wasn’t going to deliver on the outcomes of the agreement as a whole.”

Mr Edwards says it is an historic outcome, but there is still more negotiation ahead.  “Vica talks about the opportunities presented being too important to lose and I certainly agree with that.  But it’s those opportunities that we, as the signatories, and the two governments need now to seize to see whether or not we can actually do what we’ve promised to do.”

Mr Edwards says the Legislative Council has served voters well with its amendments to the deal.  “To me they did a thorough job, to the best of their ability, inside the knowledge base they had.  They applied a very strict public interest test over an agreement that was negotiated by people that do not have a public interest test.  It’s our job now to work out how we implement that.”

Yesterday, environmental fringe groups labelled the bill ‘mutant’ legislation and warned they will not stop protesting if it becomes law.>>

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[Source:  ‘Historic forest peace deal set to pass’, 20130430,  ABC Hobart, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-30/greens-to-back-forestry-peace-deal/4659544]

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April 29:   ‘Picton River Resolution April 2013’ – End logging in these forests!

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Picton River

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<<An activist workshop facilitated by Alice Hungerford, with members of the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Still Wild Still Threatened, gathered in the Picton Valley and discussed the Tasmanian forest campaign. This resolution calling for the forest agreement to be rejected was prepared by the workshop participants. 

While many conservation-minded people once held hope that the forest negotiation process may lead to forest protection outcomes, these hopes have been diminished by the ongoing conservation compromises made and more recently due to the current amendments made by Tasmania’s Legislative Council.

The amendments that have been made to this agreement by the Legislative Council render the deal void of any real conservation gain, yet prop up the dying native forest industry. These amendments are totally unacceptable.

One amendment is that forest proposed for protection in the first stage are only those areas that are in the World Heritage nomination currently before the IUCN. Leaving out large areas of high conservation value forest in:

• The North West, the Tarkine
• The North East and East
• Weilangta
• Tasman Peninsula
• Bruny Island
• West Wellington.

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Roses Tier, North East Tasmania

^http://observertree.org/category/photos/

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These forests will not be reserved unless the native forest industry in Tasmania receives Forest Stewardship Certification (FSC). Protection will be delayed until at least October 2014, however it will be dependent on this certification.

This is an amendment laced with problems; the forestry industry is not committed to changing the current regime of clear-felling, creating huge quantities of wood that is referred to as‘residues’ by the industry, continued logging on steep slopes, old growth destruction and continuing regeneration burns. If these are the logging practices that are to be granted FSC status, then this would be a severe sabotage of the FSC process and bring into question the credibility of certification. Worse still it entrenches Tasmania into ongoing destruction of native ecosystems at a critical time of climate change.

This amendment shows the clear direction of this deal – to support the ongoing native forests industry. This is a far cry from the original purpose of the negotiations, which promised a transition out of native forests in Tasmania.

We cannot accept a deal which seeks to prop up native forest destruction, clear felling and a return to wood-chipping. We cannot accept a deal that does not deliver the protection of verified high conservation value forests upfront. We cannot accept a deal which will further weaken Tasmania’s forest practice standards and which has the potential to jeopardise the integrity of FSC.

First and foremost Tasmania needs secure protection of high conservation value forests, an end to logging in these forests. Secondly the forestry industry has to prioritise restructure; bring an immediate end to out-dated practises that are ecologically damaging.

The large-scale volume-driven nature of the forestry industry must be restructured to support high-value labour-intensive use of every possible part of every tree harvested. And a rapid transition into plantations is required.

A further amendment has provided for World Heritage value forests in the Great Western Tiers to be excluded from upfront protection, despite being a part of the nominated area currently before the IUCN. Protection of these forests appears to be delayed until October 2014 and also dependent on FSC.

It is unacceptable to exclude any areas from protection that have been verified as World Heritage value. And it is unacceptable to continue to log areas within the World Heritage nominated forests or to allow access for logging for speciality timbers in perpetuity.

Another amendment made by the Legislative Council is that any reserve (including in the World Heritage Area) could be logged for special species timber as defined by the Minister of the day, if this is deemed necessary in the future. It is unacceptable for logging to occur inside reserves for speciality timbers, yet meanwhile such timbers have been left in clearfells and burnt in the annual Autumn high-intensity burns for far too long. Ending high intensity burn practises and providing funding for salvaging special species timbers off the coupe floor and storing these timbers in regional wood banks would provide ongoing employment.

Most importantly, the health repercussions for all Tasmanians from burning and poisoning our land, water and air through the current out dated practices must be acknowledged and monitored reparation is required.

The people of Tasmania bear the full social, financial and community costs of the forests destruction, and government prop up of the unsustainable industry.

Who we are: we are mothers, grandmothers, daughters, children, sisters and brothers, teachers, community workers, volunteers. We are people who care. We are strong, and loving and joyous. We are activists. We work for change.

We are committed to caring for our country. We take full responsibility for our words and our actions. We participate in all parts of this community, we call Tasmania home.

We stand for justice, empowerment, safety and ecological sustainability. We recognise the urgent need for people to wake up, to rise up and support broad-scale restorative change.

We are passionate about democracy and expect every member of Parliament to stand up and do the right thing, to put Tasmania and Tasmanians as their very first consideration in making decisions about land and resources.

The process of reaching an Inter-governmental Agreement on Tasmania’s forests has taken almost 3 years and has been fraught with bias. The process has been heavily skewed toward industry gain and conservation loss. We do not support the future of forest protection to be dictated by the special council that is set up by this Tasmanian Forest Agreement, which again is dominated by industry interests, as membership of the council will have three conservationist representatives and eight industry representatives. We call on our elected representatives to shape a future for Tasmania that insists on ecologically sustainability.>>

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[Source:  ‘Picton River Resolution April 2013’, 20130429, by Jenny Weber, Huon Valley Environment Centre ^http://www.huon.org/ and Miranda Gibson, Still Wild Still Threatened, ^http://observertree.org/2013/04/29/picton-river-resolution-april-2013/]

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27th April:   The Legislative Council has fired a torpedo into the Tasmanian Forest Agreement

(Former Greens Senator and Founder, Bob Brown)

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<<After the Agreement was struck last year the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, made it clear that she expected it to be implemented without alteration. In perhaps the biggest downpayment in Tasmanian history, the Commonwealth gave $120 million to the collapsed logging industry to make good the Agreement. It promised over $100 million more for regional development on condition that the Agreement was fully implemented, including its promised forest reserves.

However, here in Tasmania, under concerted fire from the Liberals and disgruntled individuals from the logging industry, the Legislative Council has voted to amend the enabling legislation which was passed by the House of Assembly and blown up the Agreement’s environmental outcome.

The Council’s amendments leave the loggers’ interests wholly intact while putting the bulk of the environmentalists’ outcomes on the never-never. The Agreement’s promise of immediate and permanent reserves in return for the hundreds of millions of dollars in industry restructure, retraining and regional development is largely broken.
Gazetting of the majority of the promised national parks would be delayed until, if the polls are right, Liberal governments are voted into both Canberra and Hobart. The Liberals have campaigned against the forest peace agreement all the way down the line. Ignoring the fact that it is industry and environment groups which have spent three years negotiating the Agreement, not Labor or the Greens, Liberal spokesman Peter Gutwein asserted after the Council vote that ” we will unlock every single stick that Labor and the Greens try to lock up”.

Legislative Councillor and Liberal Party member Tony Mulder, who sealed the Council’s amendments, emailed one logging campaigner to reveal his plan was to ‘get some fed dollars’ and then watch the deal fall over. He wrote that he intended to put the reserves ‘to the sword’.

Key to this hostile game plan played out by the Council amendments is sinking the core commitment in the Agreement that “the Signatories support the legally binding protection of an additional 504,012 hectares of native forests’, with 395,199 hectares given legislative protection ‘as soon as feasible’. That is, this year.
Three of the many Council amendments to the legislation highlight their killer effect. Firstly, after interim protection, some 300,000 of those 395,199 hectares of High Conservation Value forests to be reserved ‘as soon as feasible’ have had that reservation put off until at least October 2014. That means the Liberals, if they win the elections, will put the promised reserves ‘to the sword’.

Even if the Liberals stay in opposition, the reserves fail if there are any substantial protests in a state where forest destruction and protests have occurred every year since the 1970s. To make sure, the reserves also fail if Forestry Tasmania, which has been refused green accreditation for years, is not given Forest Stewardship Council certification by the mainland-based authority.

Secondly, of the 123,000 hectares of top order forests, like the Styx, Huon, Weld and Upper Florentine, which were nominated by the federal and state governments for World Heritage status last February, a Council amendment removes 35,000 hectares near Cradle Mountain and in the Great Western Tiers from gaining national park status unless both the nomination succeeds and that green accreditation is granted to Forestry Tasmania.

Another Council amendment to the Agreement is that any reserve, including in the World Heritage Area, could be logged for special species timber, as defined by the minister of the day, if this is deemed necessary in the future.

In a nutshell, the Tasmanian Forest Agreement’s fundamental deal that 395,199 hectares of High Conservation Value forest reserves, ostensibly national parks, should be created in return for the hundreds of millions of dollars of industry and regional restructuring is being torpedoed.

The logging industry employs fewer than 2,000 and that number is falling. Tourism employs more than 15,000 and that number is growing. The Council’s perverse action, if allowed to stand, will mean that the former has its money while the latter is left with neither vital new forest attractions nor the regional development funds it should share in creating Tasmania’s new future.

This puts governments in both Canberra and Hobart to the test. The House of Assembly should return the original legislation to the Council. If the Council insists on its amendments let history, as well as contemporary Tasmanian voters, see it for the wrecker it has become. — Bob Brown.

According to TWS spokesperson, Vica Bayley, “we are still looking at ways we can improve the workability of the Agreement given the Legislative Council’s amendments”.  We are not prepared to give up and are exploring all other options. There may be no way other than re-amending the [Tasmanian Forest Agreement] Bill”, Mr Bayley said.

According to Mr Bayley some of the Signatories were working through a number of options including asking the State (minority) Government to further make amendments before putting it back before the Legislative Council.

The Signatories have until this Tuesday morning (30 April) – when State Parliament sits – to devise any amendments.  ‘A group of the Signatories’ had met in Melbourne on Tuesday [23 April] and there were on-going telephone hook ups.>>

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[Source:  ‘The Council’s Torpedo’, by Bob Brown’, 20130427,  Tasmanian Times, citing article ‘Green groups burn night oil in forest pact by Nick Clark’, 20130427, in The Hobart Mercury, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/the-councils-torpedo/]

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19th April:   Tasmanian Parliament recalled over forestry bill

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<<Tasmania’s Parliament will be recalled later this month to finalise legislation to enact the forest peace deal.  The Legislative Council has significantly amended the bill, jeopardising the deal.

It is unclear whether environment groups will accept the changes.

Opposition Leader Will Hodgman postponed question time in a bid to force the Lower House to debate the contentious bill.  “Let’s finish this once and for all,” he told parliament. After today, this House doesn’t sit for another five weeks, that’s five more weeks of uncertainty.”

Labor and the Greens denied the debate, the Premier saying she will recall Parliament on April 30th to deal with the matter.  Ms Giddings says the Government cannot accept legislative changes which undermine the historic peace agreement.  She says the Government and peace deal signatories need more time to work through the changes.

“My hope is that we will find that all of us can be supportive of the legislation, but we don’t know that at this point in time,” she said.  “There are discussions that need to be had.”

Greens leader Nick McKim says it is the right thing to do.  “The signatories have been clear they would like more time.”

Deputy Premier Bryan Green is also against rushing the debate.  “This is the biggest decision that this state has had to face up to in more than three or four decades,” he said.
Signatories meet

The signatories are consulting their supporters and are expected to meet to discuss the Upper House changes later today.  The Wilderness Society’s Vica Bayley says it is too early to say if his organisation will accept the changes.  “Our members will be concerned, as are we, about these changes,” he said.  “This does not reflect the implementation of the Tasmanian Forest Agreement.  “It certainly puts a question mark over the delivery of a range of opportunities that that agreement afforded.”

Environmental groups say they will continue a holding-pattern on international timber market protests while they consider the changes.  Environment Tasmania’s Phil Pullinger says the focus is on finding a solution.  “We absolutely remain committed to the agreement we made in November, we’re not going to walk away from that,” he said.  “We do need some time to analyse what this legislation means with respect to the agreement.  “We would not be changing anything in terms of us continuing to be in a holding pattern as far as the market place is concerned.”

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[Source:  ‘Parliament recalled over forestry bill’, 20130419, ABC Hobart, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-18/parliament-to-be-recalled-over-foresty-bill/4636720]

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Tasmania’s women of principle

Miranda Gibson (SWST), Jenny Weber and Jasmine Wills (HVEC) back in 2011 launching a TV campaign against Forestry Tasmania

[Source:  Photo by Richard Jupe, Hobert Mercury, New Ltd,

^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/05/23/232161_tasmania-news.html]

 

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Footnote (2012):

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Ed:  ‘Tazmania’:  a perpetuating cultural history of exploitation and embattlement,

simply because of a recurring handful of selfish middle-aged men prepared to bully to get their way.

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Oct 2012:   Greens and FIAT push for resolution

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<<The Forest Industries Association of Tasmania (FIAT) has announced it will rejoin the forest peace talks … for now.

The Tasmanian Greens and FIAT are pushing for the forest peace talks to be wound up soon.  FIAT has declared it will return to the talks to end the state’s long-running forest wars.

The chief executive Terry Edwards said the Commonwealth and State governments were losing patience with the process and an agreement to restructure the state’s struggling forest industry had to be reached by the end of the month.

The Greens leader Nick McKim said FIAT’s return to the talks should prompt the other suspended forest groups to return to the peace talks.  “I do believe that at some stage we will either need from the signatories an agreement or an agreement that an agreement can’t be reached,” he said.  “So look, I would like to see this process concluded, I think most Tasmanians would like to see this process concluded. The good news now is that with FIAT back in, the process can proceed.”

The $276 million dollar, Federally-funded forest peace talks have been running for two years.   The Forest Industries Association, which represents large saw millers and veneer processor Ta Ann, had suspended its involvement in the talks over the Government’s plan to overhaul Forestry Tasmania.   Members met on Friday to vote on whether to walk out permanently.

The chief executive, Terry Edwards, said it was a tight vote but a last minute letter from the Premier Lara Giddings prompted the group to return to the table.   “We feel we’ve got too much invested in that process to date to simply walk away,” he said.

Mr Edwards would not detail what the letter said other than saying it gave assurances the industry would be consulted about the changes to Forestry Tasmania.  “She has clearly indicated that the reform will be evidence-based and that’s something we’ve been asking for since the announcement of the reforms of FT.   “Our concern to date has been that it will be politically-based, not evidence-based, and that’s a very welcome change of direction by the government.”

Mr Edwards put a new final deadline on the peace talks – the end of the month.   He said FIAT would withdraw permanently if a decision was not made by then.
The Premier, Lara Giddings, welcomed the announcement, saying it recognised there was an “urgent need” to restructure the state’s struggling forest industry.>>

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[Source:   ‘Greens and FIAT push for resolution’, 20131006, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-05/fiat-to-stay-in-peace-talks/4298180]

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<<There was a man outside the Executive Building at the time when Terry Edwards and Phill Pullinger fronted a waiting media pack at 1 pm on the afternoon of Wednesday 15 August, 2012.    These two Signatory representatives were there to release the Interim Agreement on Tasmanian Forest Wood Supply and Conservation.

Mr Glenn Britton of Britton Timbers and chairman of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania was also there.

Chief Executive of Forest Industries Association of Tasmania (FIAT), Terry Edwards

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On 23 August whilst Terry Edwards, the CEO of FIAT was holidaying in Fiji, Mr Britton was in the media spot-light over an article on correspondence he had with the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Will Hodgman.

Louise Saunders: ‘… you are a saw miller, you’re Chairman of the Association, do you have concerns or reservations (over the IGA process)?

Glenn Britton:   Oh, look, it would be fair to say everyone has reservations and ahh… the reason why. That to date the agreement hasn’t been achieved is because of the, ahh… the huge gap that’s still apparent between sufficient forest to supply the, ahh… the, ahh… the appropriate or required level of, ahh… level… or volume of sawlogs and peeler logs and special species timber by… by volume and by quality, and size and age class etc… to sustain a viable industry into the future on the one hand and on the other hand, ahh… having that; allow sufficient, ahh… ahh… forest to, ahh… add to the current one and half million hectares of forest reserves already in Tasmania.

Glenn Britton (FIAT Chairman)

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In April-May 2011 Britton Brothers along with Ta Ann Tasmania wrote a submission that was part of FIAT’s submission to the Legislative Council Inquiry into transitioning out of native forest logging.   Their Smithton sawmill processes 30,000 cubic metres of native forest logs employing 75 mill workers and 30 forestry contractors. Their timber products are ‘aimed at the high value appearance-grade markets – furniture, joinery, cabinet making and feature flooring, used in commercial and residential fit outs in Australia an overseas’.

Britton Timbers sawlog resource is supplied by Forestry Tasmania from native forests in north west Tasmania.  The company offered an assessment of ‘a transition to plantation processing for Britton Timbers. For them it came down to the recovery of a suitable quantity and grade of timber from plantation sawlogs.

According to Britton Timbers the recovery of sawn timber from a modern sawmill in Tasmania from native sawlog is 35%. They compared that against a 40% recovery with Eucalypus nitens plantation sawlogs.

From their annual wood supply of 30,000 cubic metres, they estimate 10,500 cubic metres of sawn timber from native sawlog and 12,000 cubic meters from plantations.  They sell graded sawn timber according to Select, Standard and Utility categories.

When it came down to the sale price, Britton Timbers maintains that their annual turnover would be disadvantaged (Figure 2); $10,290,000 from native forests versus $8,040,000 from plantations.

For Britton Timbers, a transition to a plantation resource is hampered by: (1) a lack of plantation wood supply until 2035, and (2) predominant species currently in the state forest estate – Eucalyptus nitens – is not suitable for producing appearance-grade timber for high-value wood products.

Their suggested transition strategy to plantations needed to include:

(1)    A move to plantings of E. globulus

(2)   Plantations managed for sawlog production by high-pruning and thinning trees from an early age

(3)   Growth to ‘a suitable diameter’ [600 mm in diameter]

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According to Britton Timbers’ May 2011 submission:

“Native forests can be managed for biodiversity, carbon capture and sawlog production either in perpetuity or until we have a plantation resource suitable for processing, but this will take around 25 years.  Until such time as the forestry industry has a plantation estate capable of producing the quality of timber required by saw mills and rotary peeled veneer mills, any discussion of a transition is hypothetical.”>>

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[Source:  ‘More grist for the mill …’, 20120829, by David Obendorf, Tasmanian Times, citing Britton Timbers 2011 submission to the Legislative Council Inquiry into public native forest transition April-May 2011, accessed August 2011, ^http://www.tasmaniantimes.com/index.php/article/more-grist-for-the-mill-]

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Comments:

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Comment by lmxly  (20120829):

<<Britton Brothers received a total of $1,567,308 under the TCFA. in 2004-06, from the Tasmanian Forest Industry Development Program.
The TCFA document “A way Forward for Tasmania’s Forests” states ‘This program will help hardwood mills to adjust to the different types of logs they will need to process as a result of the move away from old-growth clear-felling towards regrowth and plantation timber.

Assistance will be provided for projects that:

• Improve sawlog recovery rates and add value to forest resources (particularly regrowth wood and native forest thinnings)
• Develop new forest products
• Result in more efficient timber use
• Assist with adjustment to the changing nature of supply.

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What did Britton Bros actually spend over $1.5million of taxpayer funds on, if not the purposes of the TFIDP?

Has Britton Bros not ” adjusted to the different types of logs they will need to process as a result of the move away from old-growth clear-felling towards regrowth and plantation timber.”? If not why not?

Have they in effect pissed this money up against the wall?  Or were they conned by FT that its plantation estate would produce satisfactory sawlogs after 2020 – which is only eight, not twenty five years hence?

To claim that ‘any discussion of a transition is hypothetical’ a demonstration of Britton’s hypocrisy: incompetence at best, since this discussion has been far from hypothetical for the pst five years, and he has received over $1.5m to find a way to make the transition for his operation.>>

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Comment by David Obendorf  (20120830):

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<<Terry Edwards will be back from Fiji and no doubt Bob Gordon isn’t far away either. The pow-wow will be on with Ken Jeffreys and Evan Rolley and Glenn Britton. It looks like they will have to take Bryan out somewhere ‘noice’ for tea in Burnie and try to sort him out on a few things.

Maybe they can ask Bryan where the high quality sawlog until the plantations are available will be coming from. Bryan can ask them who’s putting up their hand to take a slice of Julia Gillard’s $15 million of the saw-miller exit money?   It ain’t easy being Bryan Green at the minute.

<<…CEO for Ta Ann Tasmania is Evan Rolley – TAT’s wood supply to 2027 is 265,000 cubic meters per annum. That is the checking move from the Industry side – no doubt about it.

Former CEO of TWS, Alec Marr is now the cock of the rock of the moth-balled Triabunna woodchip plant. Dealing with wood residue from forestry activities and sawmills. That is checking move from the ENGO side – no doubt about it.

FT Tasmania has been extremely irresponsible and culpable in its erroneous projections of high quality saw log and peeler logs from eucalypt plantations. They have led their Ministers, Canberra and local sawmillers up the garden path.

The publicly accessible plantation estate is of limited value to sustain the supply and quality required to 2030 and FT has always known this! That makes any deal on the 430,000 to 572,000 ha of HCV native forests looking like a stalemate.

Mr Bayley and Dr Pullinger should realise this fully by now. FT Tasmania – who baulked and blocked and weren’t even a party to the roundtable – had controlled the agenda and led the ENGOs into their forest territory – production forests.

The Liberals 150,000 ha of extra forest reserve looks like the position that FIAT was offering to the ENGOs in their negotiaton scenario in June 2011 (maybe even earlier).

Ta Ann doesn’t look like budging on their wood supply unless they see a very good reason to reduce their access to native forests for peeler billets in Tasmania. Any capitulation from them would come down to money [like the Gunns Ltd/FT pay out of $39 million] and negotiating with Mr Rolley on behalf of the parent Ta Ann company.

Where is Plan B, because Plan A looks like it may be stale-mated?

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Further Reading:

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[1]     >Tasmanian Forest Agreement 2012.pdf  (300 kb)

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[2]    >Tasmanian Forests Agreement Bill 2012.pdf   (300 kb)

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[3]    >TFA Fact Sheet Summary of Outcomes.pdf  (500 kb)

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[4]    >TFA Fact Sheet TFA Bill Overview Final.pdf   (330 kb)

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[5]    >TFA Fact Sheet TFA Reserve Process Short Version.pdf  (540 kb)

 

[6]  >Threats to Wild Tasmania – articles  (on this website)

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Tasmanian devil in The Weld Forest

(the forest is being logged)

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Tasmanian Police inspect arson at Camp Flozza

Upper Florentine Valley, South West Tasmania

Thursday 20120913

(click image to enlarge)

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Still Wild Still Threatened’s Camp Florentine (Camp Flozza) has been subject to an arson attack the weekend before last.  It is estimated that it was torched on Sunday night 9th September 2012. But since the camp had been unattended by environmentalists, the destruction was not discovered until some days later, by which time it had burnt itself out, perhaps with the help of rain.

Personal and campaign property has been damaged and destroyed, a car has been stolen from the site, and the information tent and camp structures were torn down and burnt. Police have inspected the site and the fire is being treated and investigated as arson.

It is believed that the arson was a misguided revenge attack by disgruntled loggers in response to an arson incident three nights prior at Les Walkden Enterprises at the nearby town of New Norfolk and connected vandalism the Saturday night prior of machinery owned by the same company at a logging coupe 12km south of Butlers Gorge in the Central Highlands.

Yet, Detective Constable Craig Fry, investigating the two attacks on the Walkden business has said that “they do not appear to be linked to any kind of protest activity.”   So the subsequent arson attack on Camp Flozza was a case of mistaken identity – frustrated loggers happy to kneejerk blame conservationists (Greenies) for everything and anything.  Being night time, the arsonists were probably on the turps.  Perhaps the two attacks on Les Walkden Enterprises, which have caused over $800,000 damage, were intended to have the Greenies take the wrap.

Detectives are investigating all three crimes.

“This violent attack on the camp is an assault on the forest campaign. The camp is a peaceful protest movement and this incident is an act of intimidation towards protesters and the community involved in the camp” said Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Miranda Gibson.

Arson Attack on Camp Flozza Sunday night 9th September 2012

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Miranda Gibson: 

‘It’s first thing in the morning when I get the call.  “Camp has been attacked“, the voice on the end of the line is telling me. “What do you mean… attacked?“, I asked.

“Someone’s gone there and trashed it, burnt it down.”

She is talking about Camp Florentine, Tasmania’s longest running forest blockade.  The camp is run by the group I’m part of:  Still Wild Still Threatened.  And it is a place that is very close to my heart, having spent many years spending so much of my time out there in the past.’

 Camp Flozza front as it was before the arson attack

[Photo by editor, 20110928, free in public domain, click image to enlarge]

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Miranda Gibson:

 ‘Camp Floz, as it is known, is in the Upper Florentine Valley, the next valley to the west of where I am located in the Observer Tree (in the Tyenna).’    [Check out  ^The Observer Tree]

The Upper Florentine Valley is a large tract of ancient wilderness, that is surrounding on three sides by the World Heritage Area.’   [Check out Tasmania’s majestic ^Upper Florentine Valley]

‘Despite the protection for the surrounding mountain ranges, this valley remained unprotected because it contains such significant tracts of tall trees that the logging industry were hungry to get their hands on.’

‘Over six years ago now members of the local community became aware of Forestry’s plans to fell 15 logging coupes in the valley within three years and in response the camp was established to stop this from happening. Over those years, the constant presence of the camp has meant that the majority of those logging coupes have never been touched by a chainsaw and the forest remains standing. Hopefully it will continue to remain standing until it can take it’s rightful place as part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.’

‘As well as literally stopping the logging, the camp has a range of other important functions in the campaign. Being on a main tourist road, it acts an information centre with people stopping in every day to find out about what is going on in the forest and having the opportunity to go on short guided walks. It has become a significant icon of the forest movement in Tasmania and is known to people all around the world who have stopped in on their travels.’

Camp Flozza Information Centre, as it was before the arson attack

[Photo by editor, 20110928, free in public domain, click image to enlarge]

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Miranda Gibson:

‘When I saw the photos I realised it was even worse than I thought.  The entire camp had been torched.  The main house, kitchen area and information hut were nothing but ashes.

And the camp car had been stolen.’

Camp Flozza arson attack on the Kitchen

[Photo courtesy of Still Wild Still Threatened 201209]

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‘Luckily no one was at the camp when the attack occurred.  The next person who was rostered on to be at the camp turned up to a horrifying scene of the camp reduced to ashes. However, one has to wonder whether the attackers would have known there was no one there, as the camp is the usually always attendance and people could have been the forest nearby.’

Camp Flozza Kitchen as it was before the arson attack

[Photo by editor, 20110928, free in public domain, click image to enlarge]

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Camp Flozza’s front line legacy

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Up here in the ^Observer Tree, Miranda Gibson tree-sits some ways far removed from what was happening at the camp. Yet, it had a big impact.

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Miranda Gibson:

‘There was the practical side of things of course, as the Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson I spent the day talking to media, police and community members.  But it also was a sad day for me.  Although I am not able to be there at Camp Floz, obviously, I still care deeply about the place.’

The Upper Florentine Valley

[Photo by Rob Blakers – visit his ^website]

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Ed:  When viewing each video below and wishing to stop it, just click the pause button on the bottom left of the respective video view.

 

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The Battle of Coupe FO044A

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Like a poacher sees an elephant only with selfish cash-eyes through crosshairs, loggers only see native forests with selfish cash-eyes with chainsaw in hand.    In Tasmania, the babyboomer government mindset cannot discern forest value from timber.  The environment is still seen as a resource for industrial exploitation, just like it was in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Forests are arbitrarily carved up on a logger’s map into harvestable ‘coupes’.    The Upper Florentine Valley where Camp Flozza is situated is innocuously described by the Tasmanian Government as ‘Coupe FO044A‘ – sounds like a factory production batch stamped on a pallet.

It’s like how numbering of black slaves occurred through the 16th and 19th centuries’ Atlantic Slave Trade.  To backward rednecks, Tasmania outside the bitumen has all been about how many ways to skin it, shoot it, trap it, log it, woodchip it, burn it, plough it, dam it, pollute it.  The 19th Century Taswegian redneck element persists in logging despite there no longer being a market for the timber.  But the loggers know no different.  They only know how to log.

Camp Flozza is a blockade set up to try to stop them logging what’s left of Tasmania’s magnificent ancient forest ecosystems.  It includes some of the largest trees left on the planet.

But to Forestry Tasmania, the Tasmanian Government logging corporation driving the deforestation, Camp Flozza is nothing more than “a slum in the forest, full of extremists“.   Emotive words, but then one would expect as such demonising by vested interests.

In early 2006, well over six years ago now, Forestry Tasmania decided to target the Upper Florentine Valley for its massive hardwood timber.  It rolled in the dozers and started pushing an ugly scar of a road into the pristine valley, within ‘coo-ee’ of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage.

Community response was immediate.  Local and independent activists and The Wilderness Society went out along the Gordon River Road to make peaceful protests.  Over the comng months, the protest presence grew and became more established and other groups joined in – The Derwent Forest Alliance, and Friends of the Florentine.

By October 2006, a protest camp had been established situated strategically blocking logging access to an area of the forest containing Mountain Ash Trees over 200 feet tall.  Camp Florentine (Flozza) was established.

It was not supposed to be flash

because a permanent structure would have invited legal demolition

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February  2007 – Government Bully Bust #1

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On 21st February 2007, The blockade was raided by over 40 police and Forestry Tasmania workers and 16 arrests were made over the following 3 days. However, a complex system of structures was built and Camp Florentine continued.    In October 2008, logging commenced in coupe FO042E in the Upper Florentine valley and was met with two actions, one resulting with physical assault on protesters by contractors. Footage taken at the action went national in the media and highlighted the ongoing violence that protesters face in the forest.

Not long after his media attention two cars and the info hut were torched one night resulting in even more media coverage.

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January  2009 – Government Bully Bust #2

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In mid January 2009, the blockade was busted for the second time by 65 police and Forestry Tasmania workers. Again there were 16 arrests in the first 3 days and after the tunnel and dragons and winter shack were removed the machines came in and carved a massive scar a further 3km into the pristine valley, to be a logging road. After 11 days of continuous actions  to try and slow down further road construction and logging the machines weretaken away and we started rebuilding on the road again.

‘…In the Upper Florentine Valley today, the Battle of Coupe FO044A entered a second day (13th January) with six activists up trees — and one down a hole — holding out against arrest amid the ruins of  their two-year-old protest camp.

Forestry Tasmania has requested police remove the camp which is hindering plans to build road and to harvest trees from a 25ha coupe in the area.    (Ed:  didims!)

Derwent District Forest Manager Steve Whitely (Ed: a hardcore logger) said Forestry Tasmania respected people’s right to protest peacefully and legally, but Camp Flozza was neither.

“The camp has been there for some time but it has degenerated into a slum and as shown late last year it has the potential to become a real flashpoint of conflict over this summer,” he said.  “We ended up with a couple of conflict situations last year that were really quite serious and we really took stock that this camp wasn’t just a slum in the forest as some people saw it but in fact a place where extremists launched raids on various other places and actually generated conflict.

That’s when it was realised it wasn’t just an eyesore but something more serious than that.”

He said the logging in the valley will be small in scale and sensitive to the area’s conservation values but admitted up to 90 per cent of the old growth forest harvested will end up as woodchips.

“The Upper Florentine is an important place for both conservation and wood production,” he said. “In fact up to 90 per cent of the Upper Florentine is protected or not available for wood production.

“We recognise the values of the area and with that in mind we’re operating at a small scale, there’s no clearfelling in the area at all, there is to be no plantations established all of the forest that is harvested will be resown with natural seed and there will be no chemicals used in the area or fertilisers.

“It’s high-quality timber, it’s been grown over a number of years, it’s some of the higher value timbers that will be supplied to the local mills.

“On average I think we find that between 10 and 20 per cent, depending on the quality of the forest, is taken off as sawing-grade products and there’s some other milling grade products which can be recovered and then the rest of it is sold to make paper.”

[Source: ‘Protest camp ‘a slum’, by David Killick, The Mercury newspaper (Hobart), 20090113, ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/01/13/49521_tasmania-news.html]

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Police move in on protesters at Camp Flozza in the Florentine Valley

[Photo by Niki Davis-Jones]

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“..Push came to shove in the Upper Florentine Valley yesterday.   Scuffles broke out as about 200 protesters confronted a line of police blocking access to a contested logging road.

Police arrested 15 people during yesterday’s Community Walk-In For the Florentine march.

In a short but heated exchange, several protesters broke through the the frontline of about 30 officers but were quickly tackled and arrested.  No injuries were reported.

Over the course of the day about two dozen forest activists managed to infiltrate the logging site.  One halted forestry operations for several hours after locking himself to logging equipment before police cut him free.

Tasmania Police act as cheap bouncers for the loggers

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Some of the others were escorted from the area by officers, while others were arrested for refusing to leave an exclusion zone around forestry operations near Timbs Track, off Gordon River Rd, west of Maydena.

Those arrested yesterday were charged with a range of offences including assaulting police, trespass, obstructing police, disobeying the lawful direction of a police officer and breaching bail conditions.   They were taken by bus to the Hobart police station.  Thirteen were granted bail and two others appeared in court last night.  Simon Christopher Browning, of Huonville, and Lauren Athalie Campbell, of Adelaide, were remanded in custody for breach of bail and will appear in the Hobart Magistrates Court this morning.

After the initial confrontation about 11am, the remainder of yesterday’s protest was peaceful.  There have been 20 arrests during the police operation in the area.  Forestry Tasmania ‘asked‘ police to clear the area surrounding the so-called Camp Flozza of protesters on Monday.

Camp Flozza – Government Bust in January 2009

[Source: The Mercury – Photo by Raoul Kochanowski]

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Most of the old-growth forest to be cut in the area will become woodchips.  The two-year-old protest camp was destroyed on Tuesday although four protesters continued a vigil on two treetop platforms. They could be heard shouting their defiance throughout yesterday’s protest.  Police inspector Glen Woolley (Ed: hardcore logger sympathiser) said the outbreak of violence was regrettable.

“It’s very disappointing. Up until this stage the protest has always been peaceful,” he said.  “The police presence is here to ensure that business operations were able to continue, however the activists have decided they would use some force to force their way through the blockade.  “When they did force their way through the blockade, we were prepared for them and they were arrested very quickly.”

Police called for re-inforcements after the initial scuffles, boosting their numbers to nearly 60.  Protester Bronwyn Smith said she attended yesterday’s protest because she believed the old forests were part of the state’s heritage. She said: “It’s much older than Port Arthur, they’ve never seen a chainsaw, there’s been very little disturbance.

“Can you imagine what it would be like today if they were at Port Arthur pulling down the ruins?

“We live in a dying world. We live in a world that’s becoming less and less tenable and less and less viable. And that’s in part because of the clearing of forest like what’s happening here.”

Fellow campaigner Patsy Harmsen said the logging had to be stopped.  “It shouldn’t be happening, it mustn’t go on. It’s just the most shocking worldwide shame,” she said.

Ula Majewski, of the group Still Wild Still Threatened, said the largeHeadline:  face-off turns nasty turnout for a weekday protest organised at short notice showed the strong support of the old-growth anti-logging cause.

“Once again, we are seeing a massive swell of community support for Tasmania’s carbon-dense old-growth forests and outrage at the destructive roading, logging, woodchipping and burning of these precious ecosystems by local climate criminals Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Limited,” she said.

“Our community will continue to stand up and speak out against these environmentally criminal acts. In this era of dangerous climate change, the destruction of Tasmania’s ancient forests is a global issue.”

She said there would be further protests.

Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley said the forestry operations in the area showed Premier David Bartlett was no different to his predecessor on forestry issues.

“The Bartlett Tasmania is in the grip of the same greed-driven woodchip frenzy that ex-premier [Paul] Lennon promoted with such blinkered commitment,” he said.

“It makes a mockery of the clever and kind Bartlett rhetoric when carbon-rich old-growth forests in an intact valley of World Heritage value are being opened up with a brand new logging road for clearfelling.”

Late yesterday, Derwent district forest manager Steve Whiteley said contractors had resumed work.

“Our staff and contractors are cleaning up the site of Camp Florentine and undertaking road repair and construction,” he said.  “We have had plans in place for several years to harvest a 50ha coupe and to build four kilometres of road.  “This year, we plan to harvest 25ha of this area, using a variable retention technique we have developed as an alternative to clearfelling. “The timber is being harvested to meet market conditions. All harvested areas will be regrown as native forest.”

Mr Whiteley said the wood was essential for Forestry Tasmania to meet its legislated requirement to supply 300,000 cubic metres of sawlogs and veneer logs annually. However, most of the old-growth forest to be cut is destined to be come woodchips.  Police are expected to scale down their presence today.

[Source: ‘Arrests at Camp Flozza’, by David Killick, The Mercury newspaper (Hobart), 20090114, ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/01/14/49611_tasmania-news.html]

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May  2009 – Government Bully Bust #3

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‘In early May 2009, Forestry Tasmania came back into the area to log the coupe.  It was Mother’s Day.

A huge police operation that lasted a whole month accompanied Forestry Tasmania’s bulldozers chain saws and log trucks. Almost every log truck that left the area got a police escort of a dozen cops jogging alongside!

The Cops had a mobile cop shop bus parked in the clearfell so they could process arrestees on site. The operation sucked most of the states police resources for the month of May as they maintained a constant 24 hour presence in the logging area for the entire month. Of course when the police association complained about the drain on resources, the government blamed us.’

[Source: Still Wild Still Threatened]

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Logger Ecoterrorism Culture

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Miranda Gibson:  

‘This is yet another act of violence against the non-violent protest movement.   This was not the first time that such acts of intimidation had been committed towards the protesters and community involved in the camp.

‘In 2008 when there was a fire-bomb attack on the camp in the middle of the night, many people were there and were awoken in terror. Two people at the camp had their cars set on fire by the attackers, as well as the camp’s information center being torched.

That incident occurred within days of a violent assault on myself and another protester at a peaceful action in another part of the Upper Florentine Valley. Logging contractors used a sledgehammer to attack a car that we were in. Smashing glass in on us and screaming abuse. When we eventually managed to get out of the car, fearing for our lives, my fellow protester was dragged to the ground and kicked in the head.’

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How the incident was reported back in 2008..

“…Police have been called to investigate a film showing protester’s car being smashed by logging contractors.   Protesters have posted footage of the attack  by logging contractors on the Internet. They say one contractor kicked a man’s head when he was escaping from the car during the Upper Florentine Valley confrontation.

A representative of forest contractors said they had been pushed to the limit and he predicted further violence in the forests.  He called on Gunns and Forestry Tasmania to compensate workers.  The video shows several men, one wielding a sledgehammer, and one screaming expletives and abuse and smashing windows of the car.

The man and woman protesters were using a “dragon” technique, in which they put their arms into a pipe running through the floor of the car and into a concrete block in the ground below.

“The man was trying to get out of the car and he was pulled out and kicked in the head,” said Ula Majewski, spokeswoman for protest group Still Wild Still Threatened.  She said a Forestry Tasmania staff member warned protesters to get out of the car before the attack but then stood by.

“Members of the Tasmanian community engaged in legitimate peaceful protest should not be subjected to this kind of violence, nor should it be condoned by a Forestry Tasmania employee,” Ms Majewski said. She said the FT employee could be seen in the video, which is on the public video website Myspace.

Forestry Tasmania last night said it had asked police to investigate the video footage.

Acting general manager operations Steve Whiteley said the staffer denied witnessing the violence.  “Forestry Tasmania staff at today’s protest had provided a categorical assurance that he didn’t witness any confrontation while he was at the scene and did not receive any complaint,” Mr Whiteley said.

Australian Forest Contractors Association chairman Colin McCulloch said the contractor involved had had his work interrupted several times and had lost about $30,000.

“These loggers should be compensated by the industry or Government,” he said, adding that Gunns and Forestry Tasmania should pay in this case.’

[Source:  ‘Forest violence filmed’, by Michelle Paine, 20081022, The Mercury newspaper (Hobart), ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2008/10/22/34071_tasmania-news.html]

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2008 Fire Bombing of Camp Flozza:

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Camp Floz, more than a protest camp

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“Florentine camp has been in place for the past five years as a frontline defence to protect the Upper Florentine. There have been violent attacks on the camp in the past. This valley is one of Tasmania’s most iconic high conservation value forests yet the current negotiations have failed to provide certainty for the future of this area. The camp is operating as an information centre, providing opportunities for tourists to take walks through the forest and find out more about the area”, said Ms Gibson.

“Sometimes I really miss the Floz and one thing I am looking forward to when I get down from this tree is going back to walk in the forest around the camp and visit all my favorite little spots. And I care deeply about all the people who are spending their time maintaining the camp. And it is hard for all of them to have to be out there this weekend, shifting through the ahes and rebuilding the camp again.”

“There is an odd lack of curiosity in the camp.  People float in and out, asking a few questions of one another, as if the past is erased and this, what they are now, is all that matters.”

[Source:  ‘Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests‘, by Anna Krien, 2010, p.38, published by Black Inc. Publishing, ^http://www.blackincbooks.com/books/woods]

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Camp Florentine arson attack Sunday 9th September 2012

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‘Anti-forestry protesters have reported an apparent arson attack on a well-known protest camp in the Upper Florentine Valley.  Activists say a large area of Camp Florentine has been destroyed by fire.  They believe it happened earlier this week.

Jenny Weber from the Huon Valley Environment Centre says there were no protesters at the site at the time of the fire because they had been helping at a tree sit.

“It’s very serious because it’s an arson attack, it’s a pattern that we’ve seen before where arson has been used against the protesters camp at the Florentine Valley,” she said.  “Even though people weren’t there at the time, it’s also a threat to what we believe in and the very real fact that we’re standing up for Tasmania’s forest.”

[Source: ‘Forest activists’ camp torched, ABC, 20120913, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-13/forest-activists27-camp-torched/4259124]

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Miranda Gibson:

“Environmentalists have been targeted by the industry in calls for durability despite the fact that our actions are always peaceful. The question is, will these same critics be condemning this violent attack on the conservation movement?   There has been a great show of support from the community, in response to this act of violence. We have received many calls from people in the Derwent valley and offers of support to help with rebuilding the camp, which has began today.”

Environment Tasmania today condemned the reported arson of Camp Florentine and condemned all violence towards person or property as totally unacceptable, and welcomed the police investigation into the incident.

“It is very fortunate no-one was present or hurt during this incident and we welcome the police investigation,” said Dr Phill Pullinger, Director of Environment Tasmania.  But it was also wonderful to receive so much support from the community and offers of help to rebuild. I guess it is a perfect time for a spring clean!

And with so much help, I’m sure they will be able to build an even better camp. And so Camp Floz will, as it always has, rise up from the ashes.

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Comments on Tasmanian Times:

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Ron, 20120913:

“Nothing in the mainstream newspapers?  When forestry equipment gets damaged you dont hear the end of it.”

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Garry Stannus, 20120913:

” The last time it was wrecked, was by the police.  And the time before that …?  ..the brotherhood roguery of Forestry Tasmania?

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William Boeder, 20120914:

“I can envision in my mind the snortings and sniggerings going on between the many upper level individuals that orchestrate the denudation of our Old Growth Forests, (along with the incumbent wildlife species and ecosystems,) this must give each individual attendant to and associated with this plundering consortium of Neanderthals the most enormous mirth.

Across the top end waters of Australia’s North a like-minded family of Malaysians have almost completely destroyed their own natural forests and the many homes of their indigenous people, all this for the life-killing tainted dollars that they now have squirreled away for themselves, yet now they are greedily and cunningly sourcing their cheaply negotiated timber product from our Tasmanian people’s forests, thanks to our feckless State government of Lib/Labbers…”

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John Hayward, 20120915:

“I can’t see any great moral difference between obliterating the camp and obliterating the surrounding forest.  The same contempt for everyone and everything else is apparent in both.”

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[Source: ‘Arson attack against Camp Florentine’, by Miranda Gibson (Still Wild Still Threatened), 20120914, Tasmanian Times, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/arson-attack-against-camp-florentine/]

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Was it misguided logger payback?

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Less than a week before the arson attack on Camp Flozza, Tasmanian news media reported that vandals had caused about $750,000 damage to logging machinery in a Forestry Tasmania logging coupe.

Who attacked Les Walkden’s machinery at Butlers Gorge?

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The media report ran thus:

…’Police were called to the logging coupe near Butlers Gorge in the Central Highlands early yesterday morning and found two damaged excavators and a skidder.  One excavator had been used to ram the other two pieces of machinery.  Private contractor Les Walkden owns the equipment.

[Source: ^http://www.robblakers.com/products/large-calendar]

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“It’s extremely upsetting especially when your workers have got to go to work and find that,” he said.  “I just hope that we can catch these people and, if we do, I can assure you…they’ll be (pursued to) the full extent of the law, we just can’t have this sort of thing going on.  “We’re supposed to have peace with this forest agreement that’s being mooted at the moment and its just disgusting.”

Mr Walkden says he will have to stand workers down until new equipment is sourced and the site is forensically examined.

Ed Vincent, from the Forest Contractors Association, says it is another blow to a struggling industry.  “Vandalism by whomever is to be abhorred.”

The State Opposition has condemned the damage, saying its proof the forest conflict is not over.

 [Ed: This media statement by the Tasmanian Liberals is unsubstantiated, presumptive and spiteful and has likely become the incitement causing the arson at Camp Flozza and the Tasmanian Police ought to investigate who made this statement as part of their arson investigation.]

[Source:  ‘Vandals hit logging machinery’, 20120904, ABC, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-03/vandals-hit-logging-machinery/4239326]

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Just two days hence, and just three days before the Camp Flozza arson attack, came a second related report of property damage to the same industrial logger.

The Tasmanian news media report ran thus:

‘Police believe an arson attack at a forestry company’s New Norfolk offices on Tuesday night is linked to the vandalism of forestry machinery over the previous weekend.

“The office and dining area was entered and multiple fires were started,” Detective Constable Craig Fry said.  “It appears some sort of flammable liquid was used in the incident,” he said.
Detectives believe the fire at Les Walkden Enterprises at 69 Hamilton Rd was started at 11.40pm. It caused an estimated $50,000 damage.

“The fire is being investigated in conjunction with a recent incident involving damage to two excavators and a logging skidder, also owned by Les Walkden Enterprises,” Constable Fry confirmed.  The vandalism attack caused $750,000 damage and was carried out at a logging coupe 12km south of Butlers Gorge in the Central Highlands on Saturday night.

“The attacks on the business do not appear to be linked to any kind of protest activity,” Constable Fry said.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

[Source:  ‘Forestry firm hit again’, 20120906, by Zara Dawtrey, The Mercury, ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/09/06/359231_tasmania-news.html]

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Yet the Tasmanian forest environmentalist campaigns have been consistently non-violent.

The fundamental core of the environmentalists defending the magnificent Florentine is non-violent protest.

All participating groups have a policy as such and the protest record is consistently non-violent.  Importantly , the two night-time attacks on Les Walkden Enterprises have been confirmed by the investigating police detectives as not connected with environmental protest.  It could more likely be a disgruntled past employee seeking revenge or some other criminal attack targetting specifically Les Walkden Enterprises, and happy to have blame attributed to environmentalists.

Indeed, the modus operandi of the night time attacks on Les Walkden have similarity with the attack on Camp Floz.

Yet as night follows day, within a few days Camp Flozza is torched, following the Tasmania Opposition publicly implying that this damage was associated with the “forest conflict”.  How irrespponsible?

So what involvement did Tasmanian loggers play in this misguided arson attack on Camp Flozza just two weekends ago?    Police ought to be taling to the local Forestry Tasmania crews under Scott Marriott, asking questions whther anyone saw anything; about who was where when around the local Maydena logger haunts like the National Park Hotel, the Maydena RSL and the New Norfolk Hotel.  What vehicles were seen travveling along the Gordon River Road west of Maydena on the night of Sunday 9th September 2012?

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Word of mouth says that in the days between the two attacks on Les Walkden Enterprises logging operations and the arson attack on Camp Flozza, loggers on Facebook were fuming and texting prolifically threatening retaliation against ‘Green scum’ and ‘Green terrorists’.  Police investigation of social media could well identify the culprits of all three attacks.

One Tasmanian logger page on Facebook includes correspondence on a known Tasmanian logger page is telling of the angst.

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“…the interim protection order on forests locked up for the IGA expired at midnight this Saturday just gone.  Some of that forest was in the Buttlers Gorge area. Walkdens machinery was burnt out in the Buttlers Gorge area this weekend just gone, then his offices at New Norfolk….. co-incidence or not?”

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“How would they like it if someone did this to their property??? They’d squeal like crazy.  Makes me so angry when they do this.”

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“Find them and cut off their centrelink payments plus jail time of 4 year. the governemnt BAN and shut down everything else so what not shut down the greens and BAN them.”

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“Hope they catch the dickheads that did this soon, someone must have seen strangers in the area they didnt walk there .”

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Jarrod Halsall should be nmade to pay for the damage done intil its completely paid should come out of there own back pocket ill go set there green alight and there propbety gutless doggs.”

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“I suspect that there are a couple of lackwit bogans somewhere sniggering about how they not only got away with it, but the “greenies” are being blamed. No doubt a double bonus to persons of that ilk.”

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“K***’are you really so gullible and naive that you think this is not the handywork of Green terrorists? Have a talk to Jenny – I believe she has a great little hand book on this kind of thing – Im sure you are aware of it?”

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[Source:  Facebook Page:  ‘Support Tassies Timber Industry like theyve supported Tassie for years‘, accessed 20120921,^http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Tassies-Timber-Industry-like-theyve-supported-Tassie-for-years/165600243510822]

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Police inspect the arson attack, Thursday 20120913

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Still Wild Still Threatened – visit their ^website

 

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Humpback Whale in a magnificent breach

(click photo to enlarge)

^http://rtseablog.blogspot.com/2011/09/bermuda-humpback-whale-sanctuary-noaa.html

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Christmas is a time for goodwill and hope.

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“There is joy in the companionship of others working to make a difference for future generations,” declares activist David Suzuki,  “and there is hope.  Each of us has the ability to act powerfully for change; together we can regain that ancient and sustaining harmony, in which human needs and the needs of all our (plant and animal) companions on the planet are held in balance with the sacred, self-renewing processes of Earth.”

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We at The Habitat Advocate convey our goodwill and hope to those out there right now defending Nature.

We convey our goodwill and hope to the environmental activists in Tasmania’s wild defending threatened forests.

Activists of Still Wild Still Threatened  (SWST)

Camp Flozza, Upper Florentine Valley

Tasmania’s Southern Forests

^http://www.stillwildstillthreatened.org/

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SWST advocates for the immediate formal protection of Tasmania’s precious Southern Forests using a combination of political and corporate lobbying, community education, research, exploration and frontline direct action. We also promote the creation of an equitable and environmentally sustainable forest industry in Tasmania. Protecting Tasmania’s ancient forests: a real climate change solution.

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We at The Habitat Advocate convey our goodwill and hope to the environmental activists in the Southern Ocean defending threatened whales.

 

Captain Paul Watson and the crew of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS)

currently braving the freezing Southern Ocean south of Australia to defend whales from poachers.

^http://www.seashepherd.org/

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Sea Shepherd’s mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

 

The meaning of Christmas has ancient Pagan origins pre-dating Christianity, coinciding with the Winter Solstice of the northern hemisphere celebrating the return of life at the beginning of winter’s decline.    [Source:  ^http://www.christmastreehistory.net/pagan]

Consistent with the original goodwill meaning of Christmas, we advocate the inclusion of Nature in this goodwill spirit:

• That each us strives to do something every day for wildness.
• That each us tries to practice simplicity and frugality. Conserve, reuse, and recycle to reduce pressures for resource extraction on remaining wildlands. Buy less. Play more.
• That each us supports conservation organizations that champion wildness, especially those acquiring acreage for wildlands preservation.

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[Source: ^http://naturepantheist.org/ecological.html]

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Eco-Christmas spirit

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As environmental activist David Suzuki advocates, “each of us has the ability to act powerfully for change”.  So we like the initiative of Melbourne-based company ‘Eco Christmas Trees‘. Eco Christmas Trees rents out ‘living growing trees providing the real Christmas experience without cutting down a tree‘.

Check out their website:  ^http://www.ecochristmastrees.com.au/

The real Christmas experience without cutting down a tree.

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“What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”

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~ Henry David Thoreau, environmental activist, (1817 – 1862)]

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Merry Yule!

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The ObserverTree in Tasmania’s magnificent Styx Valley below Mount Mueller

(Photo source:  Alan Lesheim, Dec 2011, click photo to enlarge)

Click to visit: ^The ObserverTree

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Ta Ann, industrial logger of Tasmania’s native old growth forests, has been exposed misrepresenting its timber products as environmentally sustainable. It reflects the underhand falsehoods behind the logging propaganda of Tasmanian Sustainable Forest Management.

Forestry Tasmania, which trashes and flogs old growth timber to Ta Ann, spends lots of money concocting glossy brochures claiming forestry (euphemism for ‘logging’) engages in ecologically sustainable forest management.  But it is all simply logger language belying old growth clearfell!  And the clearfell continues still, this year, this month!

The following video near ‘The ObserverTree‘ shows industrial logging underway in the magnificent Styx Valley on 16th December 2011.

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Plywood supplier to London 2012 Olympics stops buying from Ta Ann

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Recently Jenny Weber from the Huon Valley Environment Centre went to Japan with former Greens leader Peg Putt to meet with the Japanese companies purchasing from Ta Ann. The company representatives showed concern about the environmental destruction taking place to produce the products they are purchasing.

This week, a major British importer of plywood, International Plywood, which is helping to build facilities for the London 2012 Olympics, has publicly stated that it will not be purchasing any more timber from Ta Ann, due to Ta Ann being exposed for sustainable timber misrepresentation and using vital Tasmanian old growth in its plywood veneer timber flooring.  Ta Ann has been falsely selling its plywood veneer timber products claiming that the timber is certified as sustainable under the international PEFC scheme and is sourced from plantations and sustainable regrowth forests.  Doesn’t say much for the ‘PEFC’ scheme!  The Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) has been widely criticised by international environment groups as it is not an indicator of acceptable environmental standards and does not safeguard high conservation value from ongoing logging.  No wonder Ta Ann relies on it.  Forest Stewardship Council is the superior forest certification.

Environmental campaigners from Markets for Change and the Huon Valley Environment Centre travelled to England recently to meet with UK companies implicated in forest destruction. They launch a detailed report that traced Ta Ann veneer timber from Tasmania’s high conservation value forests through Malaysia to a London sports hall which will be used in training by Team USA during the 2012 London Olympics.

Tim Birch from Markets for Change was among the delegation – “We went to London to visit a number of companies to inform them of exactly what was happening“.

Ian Attwood, managing director of International Plywood, says his company is now boycotting Ta Ann’s products.   Even a recent letter from the Deputy Premier of Tasmania, Brian Green to International Plywood UK urging them to continue buying from Ta Ann Tasmania did not persuade the company to continue purchasing veneer plywood from Ta Ann Tasmania.

Attwood said:    “We’re not there to you know, to savage the forests. You know we’re here to try and buy product in a responsible manner.”

[Read More:   ^http://www.thelaststand.org.au/]

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And the response spin from Forestry Tasmania (logger of Tasmania old growth and vested interest supplier to Ta Ann) – General Manager Forestry Tasmania’s Corporate Relations and Tourism Ken Jeffreys said:

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(Logger Logic #1):   “Tasmanian timber products represent a sustainable and renewable resource with stringent forest practice standards and certifications.”

(Ed: see video above)

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(Logger Logic  #2):   “If you were concerned about the planet, you would buy timber product from Tasmania, because we have the highest level of forest reservation anywhere in the world“

(Ed: have old growth, so we log it)

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(Logger Logic #3):  “If you were going to buy plywood you would buy it from Ta Ann, because Ta Ann is using a raw material that would otherwise be exported as woodchips.”

(Ed: buy old growth for veneer otherwise it’ll end up as woodchips anyway – we’ve gotta find some use for it).

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[Source:  ‘Decision does not make environmental sense’, 20111222 (yesterday), ^http://www.forestrytas.com.au/news-room/media-releases/decision-does-not-make-environmental-sense]

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London 2012 Olympics setting sustainability standards

One key reason why International Plywood is rejecting Ta Ann’s old growth plywood is that as building materials supplier to the London 2012 Olympics, International Plywood is obligated to prove its supplies are environmentally sustainable to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).  The Olympic Delivery Authority’s Sustainable Development Strategy has the strict objective to identify, source, and use environmentally and socially responsible materials.
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‘Key to delivery of a sustainable development is its design, and the methods used in its construction. Also pivotal is what materials are used to construct the facilities.
The materials used in the construction of the Olympic Park and venues are a key aspect of the ODA’s commitment to delivering a sustainable development. The ODA is working closely with industry bodies to allow suppliers to respond positively to the ODA’s requirements. Through this engagement, the ODA hopes to leave a lasting legacy of a more socially and environmentally responsible approach to materials use within development.

Four principles apply when sourcing materials.

• Responsible sourcing
• Use of secondary materials where possible
• Minimising embodied impacts
• Healthy materials.

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Responsible sourcing

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‘Suppliers will be asked to demonstrate, as appropriate, responsible sourcing of materials by providing evidence of the existence of legal sourcing, environmental management systems, or through the use of chain of custody schemes.’

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[Source: Olympic Delivery Authority’s Sustainable Development Strategy, Executive Summary, p.20, ^http://www.london2012.com/documents/oda-publications/oda-sustainable-development-strategy-executive-summary.pdf]

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‘London 2012 Sustainability Plan’

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‘A Timber Supplier Panel has been established for the Olympic Park to support the commitment to source 100 per cent of timber from legal and sustainable sources as defined by CPET (Central Point of Expertise on Timber Procurement) and in line with Government policy.  [CPET website: ^http://www.cpet.org.uk/]

• To date, all timber used in the construction of the Olympic Park meets this commitment.
• The ODA received the ‘Achievement in Sustainability Award’ at the 2009 Timber Trade Journal Awards for the set up and management of the Timber Supplier Panel.

LOCOG’s Sustainable Sourcing Code states that the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme is approved for the purposes of both ‘Legal Timber’ and ‘Sustainable Timber’. Where it can be robustly demonstrated that it is not possible to supply items from FSC-certified sources, then timber and timber products that can be verified with appropriate documentation in respect to their origin and legality are acceptable.’

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[Source: ^http://www.london2012.com/documents/locog-publications/london-2012-sustainability-plan.pdf, p.72]

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UK News:  ‘Olympic athletes to train on timber from ‘endangered’ forests‘

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[Source: ‘Olympic athletes to train on timber from ‘endangered’ forests‘,  by Kevin Rawlinson, The Independent, Tuesday 20111108, ^http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/olympic-athletes-to-train-on-timber-from-endangered-forests-6258751.html]

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‘Wood from forests which provide homes to some of the planet’s most endangered species is being used to construct athletes’ training facilities for next year’s London Olympics, it has been alleged.  Eucalyptus trees, from forests which date back more than 1,000 years, are being logged, despite the UN World Heritage Committee’s repeated calls for that region of Tasmania to be protected.

The forests provide habitats to Tasmanian Devils, the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster and the Swift Parrot, all of which are listed as endangered species and scientists believe that the wooded area captures and stores the most carbon of any on earth per square mile.

Now though, an Australian environmental group has claimed that products made from trees felled there are being used to make a basketball court for Team USA to train on during the Games.  Although the building is not being run by the London 2012 organisers Locog, in 2018 they pledged to only use sustainable timber in the construction of the Games’ venues and infrastructure, as part of a drive to make them a “truly green Games“.

And, while Athens was criticised for making “no requirements for any form of sustainable wood products” in 2004, the organisers of Beijing 2008 banned wood “obtained directly from virgin forest” and, in the run-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, organisers pledged to only use wood which was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Wood in the London SportDock facility, construction of which is being lead by the University of East London (UEL), conforms to the rival Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) standard, which environmental groups attack for not going far enough to promote ethical logging. The facility will be rented by Team USA for the duration of the Games.

Though it does not contravene any law, the logging is opposed by environmental groups. Tim Birch, Chief executive of Markets for Change, which led a six-month investigation into the trade, tracing the wood from Tasmania to the London 2012 site, said:

“Tasmania’s ancient forests, which offer crucial habitat to endangered species like the Tasmanian Devil and the Tasmanian Wedge-Tailed Eagle, are being trashed so that plywood can be sold on to the international markets. It’s a tragedy that this time the trail of destruction has led to London’s Olympic Games so America’s international sports stars could be forced to play on forest destruction.”

He added that it was “essential” that companies review their procurement policies to ensure that they “end the UK’s part in wrecking some of the world’s last remaining old growth forests”.

Campaigners point to Tasmanian Government documents, which show that the Malaysian manufacturer Ta Ann received timber from logging operations undertaken within old growth areas of the forest. “Whether or not Ta Ann eventually use the old growth trees which are cut down is irrelevant, the habitats have been destroyed all the same,” said Will Mooney of the Huon Valley Environment Centre.

He added: “Even if they do not use the old growth timber to make their products, it is the demand for timber from the Tasmanian forest which means that old growth trees are nevertheless being cut down then discarded.”

But Ta Ann says that no old growth trees are used in their products, pointing out that machinery recently installed by the company is only capable of processing regrowth trees. A spokesman for Ta Ann Tasmania said that its products are produced “from regrowth timber billets harvested strictly in accordance with Australia’s forest policies and laws including the forest practices code”.

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Greenpeace’s executive director John Sauven said:

“As a proud Londoner, I’m shocked that ancient forests crucial for conserving the world’s tallest flowering plants, the largest hardwood trees in the world, and many endangered animals are being used for flooring in London’s Olympics. 

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“British companies like International Plywood could end the destruction by ensuring they no longer do business” with companies who handle even new growth Tasmanian timber.

Both UEL and Dynamik Sport Surfaces, which installed the wooden flooring, said they were initially unaware that parts of the wood used in the flooring installed in the building was from the Tasmanian forest. UEL said that, had it been aware of the concerns over the source of the material, “it would have been considered. But hindsight is a great thing.”

A spokesman said: “We are totally committed to making sure the £21million Sports Dock facility is an environmentally friendly development and that this new facility has the best mix of sustainable materials and features.

“The International Basketball Federation has very clear specifications about what type of materials should be used when constructing a court, which will be used by professional basketball players. Following this guidance and consultation with the relevant consultant for this development, the material was sourced.”

According to Markets for Change, the wood products destined for the UEL site passed from the Malaysian logging company Ta Ann, entering Europe in the hands of International Plywood. It eventually ended up in the hands of Dynamik, which laid it as flooring.

Anil Batra, Dynamik’s Financial and Marketing Director said he was “interested in the issue, now it has been brought to our attention” but pointed out that no laws had been broken and that the wood was certified by the international PEFC.

A Ta Ann spokesman initially called said: “what a great result for Tasmania, our timber being used in the London Olympics. He claimed that the Tasmanian subsidiary uses regrowth billets of wood and operates strictly in accordance with Australian laws and sustainability requirements.  He acknowledged that the Tasmanian forest is “a mosaic of regrowth and some old

growth” and said that the company can only use billets from regrowth”. He later said that the company had not carried out any production of veneer products bound for the UK and cast doubt on whether the wood used at UEL could be proven to be from his company.

Markets for Change produced images it said showed Ta Ann-branded crates at the UEL site which they said also had licence numbers identifying them as containing Ta-Ann-manufactured products.

A spokesman for International Plywood said the company did not have any current contracts with Ta Ann and would review its trading relationship with the firm, if it could be shown it was “acting in a way that would not comply with our purchasing policy standards“. However, the spokesman said it had no reason to believe that were the case and “if Ta Ann were able to supply PEFC certified plywood as they have done previously they would meet our current purchasing policy“.

A spokesman for Team USA refused to comment.’

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Forest Defender Miranda Gibson

of Tasmanian activist group Still Wild Still Threatened, in ObserverTree

Mount Mueller Forest, Styx Valley South West Tasmania, Australia.

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Visit: ^ T h e O b s e r v e r T r e e

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“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” 

~ attributed to Goethe.

Miranda – Defender of Tasmania’s Forest Heritage

at the foot of ‘The Observer Tree‘

Mount Mueller Forest, Styx Valley, Tasmania
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One young Tasmanian woman, charged with a deep commitment to her natural island heritage, continues to be prepared to do more to protect Tasmanian old growth forests than most Tasmanians.  Miranda Gibson of Still Wild Still Threatened is certainly prepared to do more than the current (read ‘temporary‘) Premier of Tasmania Lara Giddings, and more than the current (read ‘temporary‘) Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, who have quickly turned their backs on Tasmanians to more populist party-political issues of the day.

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Tasmania’s Forest Wars

– what the Intergovernmental Agreement is supposed to resolve.

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Gillard and Giddings in breach of Tasmania’s 2011 Forest Agreement

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Tasmanians are condemning government delinquency on meeting the conservation goals contained in the Gillard Labor Government’s Forests Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) signed and promised to all Tasmanians in Launceston on 7th August 2011.

Giddings and Gillard

– hollow Labor promises

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IGA Clause 25 states:

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‘The State will immediately place the 430,000 ha of native forest identified in Attachment A (other than any areas which are not State forest) from the 572,000 ha nominated by ENGOs through the Statement of Principles process, into Informal Reserves.’

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IGA Clause 27 states:

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‘In the event that Forestry Tasmania reports that it cannot meet contractual requirements from production resources outside the nominated 430,000 ha the Governments will undertake the following steps. First, an independent expert will be jointly appointed by the Governments to review scheduling and other relevant data and attempt to reschedule harvesting activities so as to meet the requirements of contracts and maintain the interim protection of 430,000 ha. In the event that the independent expert concludes it is impossible to achieve this, the Commonwealth will compensate the contract holder for the value of lost profits and unavoidable costs.’

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Gillard’s fly-in to Launceston on 7th August 2011 to sign and celebrate the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement with Labor mate Giddings was not a mere plaque unveiling, it was a Tasmanian landmark agreement to provide certainty for Tasmania’s forestry industry, support local jobs and communities, and protect the state’s ancient forests.  It deserves the respect of commitment and follow through on promise.

On the one hand it has funded Forestry and its associated families hundreds of millions and with a dignified exit from logging and transition to alternate trades.  On the other hand Gillard’s Forest Agreement guarantees protection for Tasmania’s natural but threatened heritage – its most iconic ancient forests, immediately placing 430,000 hectares of iconic old growth native forest into informal reserve – the Styx, Upper Florentine, Huon, Picton and Weld Valleys and the Great Western Tiers, Tarkine and Wielangta.

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Gillard’s promise made to the Australian people (Prime Minister Gillard’s official website):

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‘These forests will not be accessed for harvest while verification takes place.‘.

Well, verification is still taking place.  And Bill Kelty, who brokered the deal, seems to have run to the hills.

Such a landmark State-wide agreement that promises a ‘strong foundation‘ is hollow if the leadership waddles off to be distracted  by other issue so the day, without the committed delegation of trusted lieutenants to see through on implementation.  Predecessor PM Kevin Rudd failed classically on the implementation phase of his policy – insulation being his and Garrett’s multi-million dollar incompetent legacy.

“The Australian and Tasmanian governments are taking too long to implement the intergovernmental agreement. If they can get their act together to offer contractors exit packages then they can honour the conservation agreement as well.” Greens Senator Bob Brown has said.  “Four months later not one hectare has been protected and Forestry Tasmania continues to fell these magnificent trees as fast as they can put the roads in. All up, more than 10km2 of our wild forests will be destroyed“, Greens Senator Brown said.

All political leaders, while dancing on mountains of power and influence, pragmatically realise that their time in office is temporary.  Status quo is not a characteristic of modern democratic politics.  What matters most in political careers is legacy.  Australia’s current Prime Minister Julia Gillard is starting to stare that legacy in the face as she allows Premier Lara Giddings to breaking the $276 million promise by backing Forestry Tasmania’s current logging of the 430,000 hectares of old growth forest protected under the Gillard Government’s Agreement.

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Tasmanian Betrayal

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Gillard and Giddings have allowed Forestry Tasmania to log the protected 430,000 hectares, ignoring the prescribed compensation requirement.  Gillard and Giddings have blatantly reneged on their core promise in the Agreement to cease logging and to protect these forests.  Gillard and Giddings have betrayed the Tasmanian and Australian people.  They have no mandate to stay in power.  Their broken promises are to be their legacies.

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“Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around”  

~ Abdul Kalam, President of India (b.1931)

 

Styx Valley Giants being massacred by State logger ‘Forestry Tasmania’

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Tasmania sells itself as ‘the natural state’. But there is a gap between rhetoric and reality as logging of old-growth forests continues – to international dismay.

“And they have these big logs, and you just know they are coming from old-growth forests…I don’t think I could take living there and seeing them every day knowing (the trees) are going mostly to woodchips.”  ~ Larraine Herrick or Tumbarumba, Snowy Mountains, New South Wales.

But the Styx has been, and (is continuing) to be, logged by the timber industry in a state in which questions have been repeatedly raised about whether cronyism, corruption and deception underlie the management of forests.  Only discovered in 2002, El Grande was a Eucalyptus regnans with a 19-metre circumference. Last autumn (2003), it was killed when a regeneration burn went wrong.  Its demise helped fuel a midwinter protest that drew more than 2000 people to the Styx Valley. There, The Wilderness Society and Greenpeace began a tree-sit, 65 metres up a threatened giant eucalypt called Gandalf Staff.

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[Source: ‘Tasmania: seeing the wood but not the trees‘, by Melissa Fyfe and Andrew Darby, The Age Newspaper, 20040313, ^http://www.theage.com.au/news/science/tasmania-seeing-the-wood-but-not-the-trees/2004/03/13/1078594604573.html]

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‘El Grande’

Australia’s largest tree burned to death in 2003 by Forestry Tasmania’s incompetence

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Tasmanian forests activist organisation Still Wild Still Threatened have called on the Federal and State governments to honour a $276 million forest deal made on 7th August 2011.

“This deal has already seen $35 million delivered to Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Ltd. without protecting a single tree” said Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Ali Alishah.

“It is clear that by backing Forestry Tasmania’s destructive practices within the identified 430,000 ha area of high conservation value native forest, the State and Federal Governments are in direct violation of Clauses 25 and 27 of their own Inter Governmental Agreement.” said Mr. Alishah.

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The Observer Tree

Miranda Gibson on top of  The Observer Tree

Totally committed to Tasmanian Forests,

unlike Gillard and Giddings hollow words.

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Still Wild Still Threatened have this week launched a new tool in the fight to protect Tasmania’s forests today, unveiling the ‘ObserverTree‘, a 17-storey high tree sit and media centre equipped with the technology to record footage of logging operations and stream these images live to the world via the internet.

The Observer Tree is located in the Styx Forest below Mt Mueller, in Tasmania’s western wilderness, part of the 430,000 ha of forest that was supposed to receive immediate protection under the federal-state agreement on forests (the IGA). The Observer Tree is situated at the head of a section of Styx Forest currently targeted for logging by Forestry Tasmania.

 

‘Observer Tree’ location

^http://observertree.org/2011/12/15/observertree-on-google-maps/

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Teacher, author and forest activist, Miranda Gibson, has vowed to occupy the tree-platform continuously, until real protection is secured for Tasmania’s forests. Ms Gibson will maintain a daily blog and upload video updates during her stay in the tree, documenting the struggle to protect Tasmania’s forests to concerned people all over the globe.

‘We have used the internet to connect this spectacular patch of threatened Tasmanian forest to the world. The Observer Tree will transmit images and information about the value of the thousands of hectares of forest that remain threatened if Julia Gillard does not keep her word. People across Australia and the globe will have the opportunity to view bear witness to the wasteful destruction of these forests and hear from the people fighting to protect them,’ said Ms Gibson.

For the first time their actual logging will be broadcast live internationally via the web.

Website:    ^http://www.observertree.org
Facebook:  ^http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ObserverTree/152795598158969

Download Google Earth  (93MB):    GoTo: ^http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/

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Google Earth’s satellite image of the Observer Tree in dense old-growth, adjacent to Forestry Tasmania’s fresh logging road

(click photo to enlarge)

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Close up image

(click photo to enlarge)

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Monday:  Forestry Tasmania attacks the Styx Forest  

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On Monday 12th December 2011, State forest ‘nazi logger’, Forestry Tasmania, under the command of District Officer (Gauführer) Steve Whitely, rolled in its contracted ‘ecodeath-squad’ into the western end of the magnificent Styx Valley.  The targeted forest area is situated at the base of Tasmania’s prominent and wild Mt Mueller on the border of the World Heritage Area.  It is situated about 25 km west of the infamous logging town of Maydena.

Directing the logging – Forestry Tasmania’s Steve Whiteley

[Source: Southern Cross Television, 20111214]

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In true forest nazi style, Forestry Tasmania’s targeted forest area is branded as coupe ‘TN 044B‘.

Logging Nazi in and destroying the Styx Valley Forest

Monday 12th December 2011, in direct breach of Prime Minister Gillard’s Forest Agreement.

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This ‘Madill’ feller buncher was getting well stuck into the Styx Valley last Monday morning just below the Observer Tree.  The hydraulic arm clamps onto the trunk of the tree while a cutting mechanism severs the tree at the stump. The machine then lifts the tree, lowers the tree into a horizontal position, and drops the tree on a bunch of logs piled on the ground.  The industrial machinery has all the efficiency of a Nazi death factory.

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Foresty Tasmania is operating in direct contradiction of IGA Clauses 25 and 27.  The coupes within the 430,000 ha of high conservation value forest are not to be logged under any condition.  The IGA prescribes that relevant customers and contractors are to be granted compensation and million have been set aside for this purpose.  Foresty Tasmania under Gauführer Steve Whitely is out of control.  He is driving ecological apocalypse in Tasmania’s southern forests. He has become a Walter E. Kurtz.

Walter E. Kurtz – unhinged, his methods unsound.

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The following comments were posted by Tigerquoll 20111102, on  Tasmanian Times to the article ‘Tasmania’s longest running forest blockade celebrates 5-year milestone‘, by Miranda Gibson, Still Wild Still Threatened (20111101), which began…

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‘Today “Camp Flozza” celebrates its fifth birthday. The forest blockade has been running continuously for the past five years, holding off logging operations in the Upper Florentine Valley’.  [Read More].

Styx Valley Holocaust

– old-growth clearfelled by Forestry Tasmania

(Photo by editor 20110929 – free in public domain)

(Click photo to enlarge, then click again to enlarge again)

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“A Conservation Agreement halting logging in 430,000 hectares is now over-due. The Intergovernmental Agreement signed in August explicitly states that logging operations must be rescheduled or where this is not possible compensation given. Every hectare of forest lost in this area now represents a complete breach of the promises made by the government.”

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~ Miranda Gibson, Still Wild Still Threatened

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Of old growth defenders:

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently—they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
~ Steve Jobs [1955-2011]

History will recount – the steadfast commitment by these forest defenders to hold their ground, to dig in, in the face of an overwhelming enemy, compares to the dusty amateurs that became the rats of Tobruk.

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Of old growth rapers:

Styx Valley hillside clearfelled – beyond Forestry Tasmania’s locked gates.

(Photo by editor 20110929 – free in public domain)

(Click photo to enlarge, then click again to enlarge again)

 

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A morally-wise person would not put down an animal because it was injured. Moral civilized society has evolved the ‘Veterinary’ profession – a highly skilled field, more highly qualified than human ‘General Practice Medicine’ – why?

In the wild, a female mammal may kill an impaired offspring only to save its remaining healthy young scarce food to survive.

In Tasmania, old growth forests are becoming scarcer by the day, and yes this is still occuring in the 21st Eco-Century, not the 19th Timbergetting Century.

But in the selfish eyes of industrial loggers, any broken branch justifies the clearfell and scorched earthing of old growth forests by the hectare, which are innocuously relegated as ‘coupes’.

What then is a coupe?  A forest coupe is earmarked for logging.  A selected section of an intact, pristine native old growth forest is earmarked by Forestry Command for ‘harvesting‘, read ‘logging‘, read ‘forest ecology slaughter‘, read ‘forest wildlife habitat destruction‘.  Yet to the logger mind forest reads as plunderable timber, and these days as low grade commodity woodchip to greedy asian profiteers, only to sustain a diehard, got-no-where-to-go  desperate logger culture.  The log-till-I-drop logger mentality is no different to morbidly obese American juveniles confessing dependence on Maccas Big Macs.

I fear loggers would do same to their grandparents once impaired.

‘Corporate industrialism’ is worse than Herbert Spencer’s ‘survival of the fittest’ mindset. It is self-serving Forest Eugenics – evident in Forestry Tasmania’s programmed conversion of native Tasmania into plantations and the scourge of its genetically modified Eucalyptus nitens now exterminating Tasmania’s next condemned species – the Tasmanian Devil.

Beware the Forest Nazis lurking in the privets.

Holocaust is what the Nazis did

This is what Forestry Tasmania did recently to The Tarkine.

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‘Forest Eugenics’ is what Forestry Tasmanian ‘scientists‘ are doing today –

GM-modified Eucalypt nitens plantations replacing native Old Growth

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Is this where GM Nitens (shining gum) is taking Tasmanian ecology – to ‘elite forests’?

– superior growth rate, disease resistant, herbicide resistant, but perhaps the GM-exterminator of Tasmanian Devils.

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Last Saturday, forest activists scaled Sydney’s Opera House and unfurled a huge banner reading:

‘No Harvey No! Stop selling Aussie forest destruction’!

“We have come to the centre of Sydney to send a clear message to Harvey Norman that profiting from the destruction of our spectacular forests is absolutely unacceptable’ said Ula Majewski, spokesperson for The Last Stand.”

‘Our internationally iconic Aussie forests are still being destroyed by industrial logging operations. We are taking peaceful action from the top of another great Aussie icon to tell Harvey Norman that selling Aussie forest destruction is no way to do business’ said Miranda Gibson, currently perched atop the Opera House..

~ The Last Stand Inc.
^http://www.thelaststand.org.au

[Source:  ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/forest-activists-scale-the-sydney-opera-house/]

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Why do forest activists scale the Sydney Opera House to protest their message?

They personally risk their lives, are arrested, put in gaol; and in these days of corporate background checks, are denied corporate employment for the rest of their lives.

How many of our readers realise the seriousness of these young people and their moral custodial commitment to fighting for the protestion of Australia’s remaining and irreplaceable ancient forest ecosystems?   Australia’s youth represent and prepared to be incarcerated to protect Australia’s natural heritage.  These protesters in generations to come, when the economic bigotry has died, will be venerated as Australian diggers defending what is uniquely Australian.

While the mainstream media are more interested in a commercial football match in Auckland that comes around and goes around, the vicious industrial lumberjacks in Forestry Tasmania, Forestry Victoria, and Forestry New South Wales (or whatever their rebranded name) are daily decimating vast hectares of Australia’s wild native forests.  This State-sanctioned ecological massacre of old growth forests is the core reason why Australia has been internationally degraded with a backward reputation for recording the highest rates of wildlife extinction in the 21st Century.  Australia is down their in ecological degradation with Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Mozambique.

Why do forest activists scale the Sydney Opera House to protest their message?

Well, start to appreciate the grassroots struggle that has for years been unreported by the mainstream media…

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‘Conservationist halt roading operations in the iconic Styx valley’

Tasmania’s ancient Styx Forest slaughtered for Malaysian woodchips,

continuing to be subject to Forestry Tasmania holocaust

– utter clearfell followed by blanketed incineration so that the old forest is obliterated forever

– just like what the Nazi’s did to the Jews  – out of sight out of mind, until the war was over.

(Photo by editor 20110928, free in public domain, click to enlarge and then click to enlarge again)

‘Today twelve conservationists have halted a new roading operation in the Styx Valley as part of a ten week campaign to highlight the urgent need for Tasmania’s high conservation value forests to be protected. The recently started roading operation leads to Coupe SX038D and is within a high conservation value area proposed for formal reserve. One protester is in a tree sit, which is attached to roading machinery, preventing any operations from continuing for the day.

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“The fact that a new road is currently being pushed into high conservation value forest in a area that should have been under moratorium weeks ago, is a clear indication that Forestry Tasmania are not taking appropriate action to reschedule coupes and implement the moratorium” said Miranda Gibson, spokesperson from Still Wild Still Threatened.

“How can the Tasmanian community have faith in Forestry Tasmania when they have not only failed to meet the moratorium deadline, but are now blatantly disregarding government directive to reschedule coupes? If Forestry Tasmania were serious about implementing the moratorium, they certainly would not be wasting taxpayers money investing in brand new roads to access iconic forests that have been earmarked for protection.” said Ms Gibson.’

 

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[Source:  Still Wild Still Threatened, 20110412, ^http://www.stillwildstillthreatened.org/main-categories/current-news]

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Maranda Gibson, defender of Tasmania’s forest heritage

One of the arrested protesters on the Opera House last Saturday

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Prepared to be arrested for Tasmanian principle

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Styx Valley

Tasmania’s remaining wild forests..disappearing by

…LARGE TRUCKS USING ROAD 24 HRS DAILY

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Legal Sequel:  ‘Opera House abseilers fined $200’

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[Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 20111109, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/opera-house-abseilers-fined-200-20111109-1n6vv.html]

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‘Three activists who scaled the Opera House, unfurling a banner bagging a retail giant, have been fined in a Sydney court.  Miranda Gibson, 30, and Roseanne Phillips, 22, scaled the landmark on October 8 and abseiled from the western side of its western sail.
They unfurled a 10 by 12-metre yellow banner stating:

 

“No Harvey No! Stop selling Aussie forest destruction”

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Scott Mackenzie, 37, also climbed to the top of the building carrying the banner on his back, but remained on the peak. They each pleaded guilty, in Downing Centre Local Court today, to a count of trespassing. Magistrate Janet Wahlquist fined them $200 each, plus court costs.
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Outside court, Gibson, from the protest group The Last Stand, said the protesters had achieved their goal. 

“We took action to bring the plight of our great and iconic native forests to another great Australian icon in the heart of Sydney, and to send a clear message to Harvey Norman that profiting from Aussie forest destruction is no way to do business in this day and age,”

 

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Fined $200 in NSW to dare to protest against destruction of Tasmania’s ancient native forests

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The Last Stand has singled out Harvey Norman after a year-long investigation into its timber usage which, the protesters say, was contributing to the destruction of native forests.

They claim to have tracked timber from native forests in Australia through its shipment to China for processing into furniture, and then to its final sale in Australia through Harvey Norman stores.The store has previously said it was being unfairly targeted and did its best to source timber from sustainable sources.’

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When will Gerry Harvey come clean on his personal profiting from native forests?

GO…search your morals Gerry Harvey!

Tasmanian Devil

(Photo by Matthew Stewart, Flickr).

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Tasmania’s ancient Eucalyptus regnans of the Upper Florentine, South-West Tasmania…chainsawed in utter spite by Forestry Tasmania in its infamous forest raid on Tuesday 13th January 2009.

 

(Photo at Camp Flozza, Upper Florentine, South-West Tasmania,  by editor 20110928,

 

Photo free as always in public domain – click to enlarge, then click to enlarge again)

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^www.stillwildstillthreatened.org

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‘There are people at Forestry who obviously don’t see green,

they see red..

The bunker mentality surfaces,

the big boots go in,

the chainsaws are fired up.

and ‘Common Sense’…goes out the window.’

[Source: Editorial, The Mercury, 20070219]

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The 2009 Bartlett-Gordon Old Growth Massacre

Then Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett

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Then Forestry Tasmania Managing Director Bob Gordon

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13 January 2009:   ‘Camp Floz Busted…Camp Flozza was raided by 60 cops this morning. They are back in force to ensure logging starts in the pristine Upper Florentine. They are held off by 3 conservationists in 50m high tree sits, 2 in cars locked to the road, and one in a tunnel.’

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‘Push came to shove in the Upper Florentine Valley yesterday.  Scuffles broke out as about 200 protesters confronted a line of police blocking access to a contested logging road.  Police arrested 15 people during yesterday’s Community Walk-In For the Florentine march.

…Most of the old-growth forest to be cut in the area will become woodchips.

The two-year-old protest camp was destroyed on Tuesday although four protesters continued a vigil on two treetop platforms. They could be heard shouting their defiance throughout yesterday’s protest.

“It makes a mockery of the clever and kind Bartlett rhetoric when carbon-rich old-growth forests in an intact valley of World Heritage value are being opened up with a brand new logging road for clearfelling.” ~ Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley.

Late yesterday, Derwent district forest manager Steve Whiteley said contractors had resumed work.  “Our staff and contractors are cleaning up the site of Camp Florentine and undertaking road repair and construction,” he said.  “We have had plans in place for several years to harvest a 50ha coupe and to build four kilometres of road.’

[Source: Arrests at Camp Flozza’,  by David Killick, 20090114, ^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/01/14/49611_tasmania-news.html]

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‘Eyes that see much, and have so much seen’

 

Taking a last stand to save Tasmania’s ancient forests

January 2009 police raid Camp Flozza, the front line defence of the Upper Florentine Forests

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“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes

… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward,

and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius,

because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

~ Steve Jobs  (1995-2011)

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O Brave.. ‘New Tasmania?’

Upper Florentine under current industrial attack from Forestry Tasmania

(Photo at Camp Flozza by editor 20110928, free in public domain – click to enlarge, then click to enlarge again)

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…those who come raiding at dawn.

(Photo at Camp Flozza by editor 20110928, free in public domain – click to enlarge, then click to enlarge again)

 

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‘The struggle for the soul of the island has raged for 200 years.

And it rages still, and still governments divide us against ourselves.

Resistance now is the staunch child of resistance past.

And it bodes for the future.’

~ Pete Hay

(Photo at Camp Flozza by editor 20110928, free in public domain – click to enlarge, then click to enlarge again)

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‘What must I do to protect you – he yells the trees…’

~ Barney Roberts

(Photo at Camp Flozza by editor 20110928, free in public domain – click to enlarge, then click to enlarge again)

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(Photo at Camp Flozza January 2009 by Sam Rosewarne, The Mercury newspaper)

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‘Documentary photography offers the future a view of the past.

It bears witness in an age when publications turn toward entertainment, celebrity and spin.

This is the history of Tasmania.

It should be documented.’

 

Foresty Tasmania ~ they came with 60 police,

they bulldozed their road through pristine old growth forest

(Photo at Camp Flozza by editor 20110928, free in public domain – click to enlarge, then click to enlarge again)

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Forestry Spite

(Photo at Camp Flozza by editor 20110928, free in public domain – click to enlarge, then click to enlarge again)

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[Quotes from Matt Newton & Pete Hay’s 2007 important photographic book , ‘The Forests’, ^http://www.matthewnewton.com.au/#/Documentary/The%20Forests/1]

 

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