Tasmanian forests – World Heritage plan to stop the clear felling
A short visit to the South Weld Forests in the Tasmanian World Heritage Area revealed both their magnificence and the extreme danger posed to them posed by wood-chipping, and even shooting.
The destruction of parts of the South Weld Forests that border the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is extreme. I was in the Weld last Friday. The magnificence of the forests untouched by the ravages of Forestry Tasmania is very special.
With staff from Senator Bob Brown's office, local activists and a colleague from my days at Rainforest Information Centre and her children we set out to explore this remarkable landscape.
To reach the starting point for our wilderness walk we had to drive through an industrial logging camp. The destructive practices could not be worse. Everything is trashed. Locals describe the operations as "clear-fell, burn, poison, shoot". Clear-felling to within 100 metres of the national park boundary has already occurred.
I had to ask for an explanation of the "shoot" part of the plan. I had obviously seen the clear-felling and had read about the burning of what Forestry call "waste" and the poisoning of regrowth and animals. But the shooting was new to me.
The explanation is one more perverse activity that human beings sometimes perpetrate on our fellow beings on this planet.
Shooters are paid $70 an hour to spend their evenings roaming through replanted state forests looking for native wildlife to shoot. Forestry Tasmania is worried a few seedlings will be devoured.
The Weld and other forests of universal value that surround the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area should never have been logged.
The Australian Greens have put forward a plan for an expanded World Heritage Area that would ensure the destruction ends and protection is put in place. "Western Tasmania, a place of outstanding universal value", if implemented, would provide protection to areas that satisfy the World Heritage criteria and extend the economic benefit that currently flows to many towns and regions associated with the existing World Heritage Area. This plan was commissioned by Senator Bob Brown and written by Geoff Law.
It is estimated that the existing World Heritage areas brings in $200 million in annual income for Tasmania and creates more than 5,000 jobs.
The other fascination this area held for me is the story of the Weld Angel. Art and actions are to the forefront in the campaign to save the Weld.
For being perched on top of a tripod dressed as a Weld Angel, Allana Beltran, was sued by Forestry Tasmania and the Tasmanian Police for nearly $10,000. They made out they had to recover their costs. After much wasting of time and money in early 2008 the case was dismissed by Magistrate Peter Dixon.
The outcome has wide implications. Protesters do have rights despite what Forestry Tasmania might do and say.
The court action against the Weld Angel sent her images flashing around the world. They have appeared on postcards, Senator Bob Brown’s website and in Richard Flanagan’s Monthly essay on Tasmanian forestry operations.
The message of the Weld Angel and the thousands of others who support protecting Tasmania's forests is also on its way to Japan.
Anja Light, who I visited the Weld with, is another extraordinary forest campaigner. In the early 1990s we worked together on many Rainforest Information Centre campaigns to save the forests of Southeast Asia.
Anja wanted to take our message direct to the people of Japan so they would understand what Japanese logging companies were doing to the world's native forests. Anja learnt Japanese to help ensure her message was heard and has visited Japan on many occasions for campaigning tours. She is about to head off again to amplify our message that the woodchipping of Australian native forests must end.
Her achievements for forests in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Australia are extensive and impressive. So it is good to be working with her again.
And thanks to Adam Burling from Senator Bob Brown's office who arranged our visit and to local forest campaigners, Jasmine Wills and Nishant Datt, and Marcus Tatton, a local sculptor, who joined us on our magnificent bushwalk.
Check out the Huon Valley Environment Centre for more on the campaign to save the Weld.
