Some facts on Tasmania's forests The Styx Valley, just 70km west of Hobart, has the largest hardwood trees in the world. Many are taller than a 25-storey building, over 400 years old and up to five metres wide at the base. Tasmania is also home to the Tarkine, Australia’s largest temperate rainforest. These forests are being logged for woodchip, using practices banned in the rest of Australia and seen only in developing countries. Old growth forests are clearfelled and fire-bombed from the air with petrochemicals. Grazing animals are then poisoned with carrots laced with 1080 poison. The Wilderness Society, Greenpeace and other community groups are calling for the immediate protection of about 240,000 ha of old growth forests. This is about a quarter of the public forests currently available for logging. LEARN MORE: Eucalyptus regnans (also called “Swamp Gum” in Tas and “Mountain Ash” in Vic) are the world’s tallest hardwood trees - up to 400 years old and over 80m tall. They are second only to the Californian Redwoods as the world’s biggest trees. In the US they protect and mythologise their Redwoods, making them part of their story of national greatness. In Australia we clearfell our trees of international significance. There is continuing debate about whether in fact Australia once had the tallest trees - Eucalyptus regnans in Victoria - that were logged before being properly measured. In the Styx Valley, the Regnans emerge out of a forest of rainforest species. In 1996, 13% of the original cover of Eucalyptus regnans remained undisturbed in Tasmania. Under the Regional Forest Agreement less than half of this is genuinely protected in national parks and other secure reserves. (6.3% is protected if stream side and road side buffers etc are counted - of course these provide no real ecological future.)
In 1997 the State and federal governments signed a Regional Forest Agreement (RFA). Both major parties in federal politics supported the agreement. The RFA protected some forests and left the rest open to logging and woodchipping. The RFA failed to reach even its own targets for protection, even though these were woefully limited. The RFA has failed to: Only 25% of Tasmania’s original extent of old growth forests remains (1.24 million ha out of the original 4.82 million). Yet ancient forests continue to be cleared, woodchipped and replaced by plantations. The Tasmanian government claims 68% of old growth forests are protected. But many of these are not in proper reserves. Old growth forests protected are dominated by the type of communities not suitable for woodchipping, such as dry E. nitida and short rainforest. The RFA was supposed to protect 60% of remaining old growth for each type of forest. But for the three main species of tall eucalypt, this target was not met. There are only 18% of our original tall old growth forests left, and less than 40% of this occurs inside proper reserves such as national parks. Much of the supposedly “protected” forest occurs in unviable and unsuitable scraps and slivers, such as streamside reserves. From majestic giants to woodchips Tasmania is producing record amounts of export woodchip. The total
amount of wood chipped in 2000 reached 5.3 million tonnes. Since 2001,
after the takeover of North and Boral by giant logging company, Gunns
Ltd, the release of figures is prohibited.
Over 90% of logs taken from Tasmania’s forests ends up as woodchips for export to Japan. Forestry Tasmania’s own figures reveal that 84% of all logs go straight to the woodchip mill and then a large percentage of the remaining ends up waste after sawlogging. Although the woodchip as waste product of a saw log industry argument
continues to be run by industry and government, the table below, compiled
from the Forestry Tasmania Annual Report, reveals that 84% of all
logs extracted from State Forest goes directly to the woodchipper.
Only 16% goes to sawmills. A large proportion of this 16% ends up
as waste and is also sent to the woodchipper.
The 1999 Ryan Report, commissioned by Forests Minister Paul Lennon, detailed rates for the recovery of sawn timber from sawlogs, and rates for the proportion of sawlogs chipped as residues. Generally, about one third of each sawlog becomes sawn timber, while about 55-60% is chipped. If you apply Ryan’s figures to the table above, you get the following results: 3.5 % of wood extracted from State Forest becomes sawn timber. “95% of Tasmania’s wilderness is protected from logging” The Tasmanian government claims 95% of Tasmania’s wilderness is protected from logging. This is misleading, as most of the famous World Heritage area to which they refer is not forested, but is buttongrass and mountain tops. Of the forested parts of Tasmania’s wilderness, 30% remains threatened by logging. This includes most of the tall forests. The Wilderness Society has a National Park proposal which would provide protection for the remaining wilderness and old growth forests of Tasmania. It includes the Styx, the Tarkine and the south-west, and covers about 240,000ha of forests. We are calling for the immediate end to old growth logging and the adoption of the National Park plan. We propose that the Tasmanian government declare a Styx Valley of the Giants National Park, and that the Australian government nominate the valley as an extension to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Federal politics needs to intervene to stop the madness. Both major parties need to be encouraged to adopt a policy of providing the necessary dollars to shift the forests from a resource for extraction, to a tourism resource. This will provide the people of Tasmania with real long-term economic options. The Styx Valley and other tall forest valleys like it run along the eastern edge of the World Heritage Boundary. The World Heritage Boundary follows the line of the escarpment, including mountain tops and buttongrass plains, but effectively excluding forests. The proposal for shifting the World Heritage Boundary east to include the unlogged tall forests (including the Styx) has been supported by: Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick (1987, 1994 and 1999); the Tasmanian Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage (1990); the Australian Heritage Commission (1987); Peter Hitchcock (1988 and 1991); the IUCN (1989, 1990 and 1994); and the World Heritage Bureau (1989 and 1994). Tasmania Together: broken promises In 2001 the Tasmanian Government initiated a community consultation process called Tasmania Together. The process aims to give the people of Tasmania a voice about the future direction of their state. The community process called for an end to clearfelling in special places, including the Styx by January 2003. The clearfelling continues and the latest 2003 progress report of Tasmania Together admits failure. Visit The Wilderness Society website for a detailed background to the Styx campaign. Download our Lobbying and Letterwriting Kit for Tasmania's Ancient Forests, with tips on how to organise public meetings, muster support, get access to government ministers and be a successful lobbyist. |
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