"Those of you fighting to preserve the great forests of Tasmania are warriors fighting to preserve a future for our children and grandchildren. As a father and grandfather, I salute you and give thanks to what you are doing."

Writes award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster
Dr David Suzuki.

All over the planet, most of the large forest ecosystems have been invaded by human beings. We live with the arrogant notion that we are so clever, we understand how forests work and can cut them down and attempt to manage them.

Of course, what the forest industry calls a second growth "forest" is in fact not a forest at all but a plantation that attempts to mimic an agricultural crop. Only time and nature are able to grow a forest but we humans are too impatient, our economic system demands returns now.

Even though there are numerous examples that show forests can be used for human benefit and economy, we don't seem willing to live within the regenerative capacity of forest ecosystems and like the greedy folks who had a goose that laid golden eggs, we kill the goose by clearcutting the forest.

The forests of Tasmania are unique, just as the forests of the Amazon, Congo and Canada are unique. Each has untold secrets that we could tease out of them if we had the respect and patience to do it.

The sad thing is that in our arrogance, forestry companies boast that they "know enough to manage the forests they are logging", never acknowledging that this is absolutely untrue. In order to manage anything, even a shoe factory, we need at least two components of knowledge: an inventory of everything in the system and a blueprint indicating how everything in
hat system interacts.

Since we know that we have identified perhaps 10% of all species on Earth (and that is a very generous estimate) and know less than a fraction of 1% of those in any kind of detail, it is
unbelievable that any forester would claim to know how to manage a forest.

The past century has been an unbelievable period of ecological degradation and loss of biodiversity. As biological beings, we are as dependent as any other species on clean air, clean water, clean soil and clean energy, all elements that are cleansed, created or regenerated by
the diverse web of living things on the planet. Our survival is tied up in the integrity of ecosystems around the Earth.

Those of you fighting to preserve the great forests of Tasmania are warriors fighting to preserve a future for our children and grandchildren. As a father and grandfather, I salute you and give thanks to what you are doing.

David Suzuki