Keeping a watch on the Upper Florentine

A Forest campaigner descends from the Watchtower after night in the canopy. Photo: Vica Bayley

The Wilderness Society has launched the World Heritage Watchtower, a tree platform set 55 metres high up in the canopy of the threatened forests of the Upper Florentine Valley.

The Watchtower directly overlooks a road that Forestry Tasmania is pushing in to the pristine old growth forests of the valley. It will provide a platform for peaceful and lawful protest, from which to bear witness to the actions of Forestry Tasmania in this precious area. It will also provide a focus for highlighting the threats faced by the Upper Florentine and other forests of recognised World Heritage value.

The Upper Florentine is a valley of threatened forests bordered on three sides by the mountains of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. It is part of Tasmania’s South-West wilderness, one of the world’s great temperate wilderness areas. The Upper Florentine contains giant eucalypts, rainforests and moorlands. Local, national and international experts have called for these forests to be added to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

The Florentine valley is riddled with caves, including one of Australia’s deepest caves, the spectacular Growling Swallet. The last thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) to die in captivity was caught in the Florentine in the 1920s. The remaining old growth forests of the valley provide important habitat to threatened species such as the Tasmanian Wedge-Tailed Eagle, the Spotted-Tail Quoll, and the White Goshawk.

The Upper Florentine is an area that the Prime Minister promised to protect in the last federal election campaign.

In October 2004, the Prime Minister promised "immediate protection of 18,700 hectares of oldgrowth forest in the Styx and Florentine valleys along the Eastern Boundary World Heritage Area".  However, the official literature about the Howard-Lennon agreement of May 2005 admits that the protected areas in the Styx and Florentine contain only "4730 hectares of old-growth eucalypt against a target of 18,700 hectares".¹

Not only did the Howard-Lennon deal fail to deliver on promised areas of forest protection, but the timber industry in Tasmania was given five times as much money as originally promised. Ironically, it is this money - taxpayer funds - that is being used to pay for the road into the Upper Florentine, and subsidise the logging of the forests themselves.

Forests of World Heritage value are under renewed assault, using public money to prop up logging that would otherwise be uneconomical. Ancient trees have been dynamited in the Upper Florentine, roading in preparation for logging has recommenced in the Weld Valley, and destruction continues in the Styx.

Find out more about Tasmania's ancient forests and read how The Wilderness Society is protecting these spectacular areas of the world.

Read The Wilderness Society's forests and woodlands policy 'A Fringe of Green' to find out more background about the campaign to protect Australia's forested areas.

The view from the Watchtower overlooks ancient forests to the protected mountains of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Photo: Vica Bayley

• Pick up a Tasmanian self-drive leaflet from The Wilderness Society Tasmania's Campaign Centre at 130 Davey St, Hobart, and visit the Upper Florentine;
• Spend time in the base camp of the World Heritage Watchtower;
• Donate food, equipment, or money to help maintain the World Heritage Watchtower, or;
• Purchase the Upper Florentine poster from The Wilderness Society's Hobart Shop and send it to friends interstate and overseas.

For more details, or to find out how to visit the World Heritage Watchtower, please email Vica Bayley or phone Vica at The Wilderness Society Tasmania's Campaign Centre on 03 6224 1550

¹ Source: Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement, Fact Sheet No. 3