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Saving Tasmania's Forests
Eucalyptus Regnans
in the Styx Valley |
Burning after clearfell |
Over 22,000 ha of native forest are logged in Tasmania every year. This includes over 12,000 ha per annum of public land managed by Forestry Tasmania and over 10,000 ha per annum of privately-owned native forests.
Forests logged include:
- 9000 hectares of old growth forest each year, including the tallest hardwood forests in the world;
- Areas identified by the IUCN, World Heritage Bureau, Australian Heritage Commission and other national and international experts as having World Heritage values;
- Habitat of wildlife that includes rare and threatened species;
- Parts of one of the world's great temperate wilderness areas;
- Rainforests.
The scale and severity of this logging is destroying biodiversity, wilderness, rainforest, World Heritage values, old growth forests, water catchments and scenery.
Approximately 12,000 hectares of native forest are cleared every year and replaced by plantations or other non-forest use.
In every state other than Tasmania, the logging of pure rainforest has been banned. There may be disputes about the definition of rainforest, and therefore whether rainforests are being logged. But Tasmania is the only state in Australia where pure rainforests are not only logged, but also woodchipped and cleared.
Before Gunns Ltd bought North Forest Products, NFP had already been a major destroyer of rainforests on private land. On its 85,000-hectare Surrey Hills estate in north-west Tasmania, thousands of hectares of rainforest have been replaced or are in the process of being replaced by plantations. Figures obtained from a report to the Minister for Primary Industry by the Tasmanian Forest Practices Board in 1997 show that NFP was planning to destroy 6800 ha of myrtle rainforest and replace it with plantations.
Virtually all woodchips from old growth forests are exported as raw woodchips. This means that 90% of the wood extracted from old growth forests on public land is exported as woodchips.
For more information, please contact:
Leanne Minshull
Corporate Campaigner
Created: 26 Sep 2002 | Last updated: 26 Sep 2002
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