The Tiwi Islands - a tropical paradise where forests and wildlife are being destroyed for woodchips

The Tiwi Islands are a tropical paradise, but their internationally-significant forests and wildlife are being destroyed for woodchips.

The Tiwi Islands are located 80 kilometres north of Darwin and include two main islands, Melville and Bathurst.  With their savannah woodlands, remnant rainforests, wetlands, mangroves and pristine coasts, they have been described by scientists as the “jewel in the crown” of Northern Australia.

The Tiwi Islands are a tropical paradise whose forests and wildlife are being destroyed for woodchips. Photo: ECNT

The Tiwi Islands represent a highly unique biodiversity refuge - attributable to the high annual rainfall and isolation from the mainland. This isolation has protected the islands’ natural and cultural values from the weeds and feral animals found on the mainland, and sustains some of the healthiest and most intact tropical savannahs left on the planet.

But 30 000 hectares of these beautiful Tiwi forests and woodlands have been cleared and burnt over the past decade, and replaced by single species acacia plantations grown for export as woodchips. The acacia species being grown is not native to the Tiwi Islands and is recognised as a potential serious weed problem.

Worse still, a further 50-70 000 hectares of these beautiful tropical forests may be cleared as part of a proposed, but not approved, Stage 2 of this ill-considered project.
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Commonwealth approvals and project proponents.

The clearing of 30 000 hectares of high conservation value Tiwi Islands savannah woodland to establish Acacia mangium woodchip plantations should never have been approved by the Commonwealth.

The Tiwi plantation woodchip project was originally approved by the Howard government in 2001. The company that instigated the project, Sylvatech Ltd, was taken over by the tax minimisation company Great Southern [Plantations] Ltd in 2006. 

In 2008 it was established that the plantation operators had seriously breached the Commonwealth’s environmental conditions that were set when the project was initially approved, and Great Southern were 'fined'. Great Southern itself has since collapsed and the fate of the whole project is now in question.

Some Indigenous elders are opposed to this destruction.

The entire Tiwi Islands is owned by the Indigenous Traditional Owners. One of their representative bodies, the Tiwi Land Council, approved the woodchip project in the belief that it would provide secure long term income and job opportunities. Many other Tiwi Islanders believe the project has been very environmentally damaging and has not returned the benefits promised.

Over 100 Tiwi women have issued a petition which concluded, "Our call is to stop clearing Tiwi land." Some of these women gave evidence to the Senators when they travelled to the Tiwi Islands in May of this year.

Other Tiwi Traditional Owners travelled to Darwin to give evidence at the Senate Inquiry’s hearings. Some spoke out against the plantations, citing poor rates of return for rental of their traditional lands and only a handful of jobs for Tiwi Islanders as some of the reasons why they do not support the plantations.

The environmental costs are huge.

The Tiwi Islands plantation project is the single largest native forest/woodland clearing operation in the whole of Northern Australia – and comparable to the clearfelling of native forests in Tasmania.

This large-scale, high-impact logging and land clearing project has caused serious environmental degradation through the clearing and burning of intact, native vegetation and subsequent planting of an exotic species likely to soon be declared a weed under the Northern Territory's Weed Management Act.

The environmental impacts of the logging, landclearing, plantation establishment and management are numerous and include:

• Removal and fragmentation of habitat, including remnant rainforest
• loss of food sources for native wildlife
• altered fire regimes
• weed invasion
• disrupted hydro-ecology
• degraded carbon stores
• soil disturbance and associated increased erosion and sedimentation in waterways
• pollutants, e.g. fertilisers, and pesticides in waterways and in the food chain.

Logging and clearing cause climate change.

Our native forests, especially mature (or ‘old growth’) forests, store millions of tonnes of carbon.  Clearing, logging and burning these forests anywhere on the planet makes climate change worse because it re-releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, and reduces the Earth’s capacity to sequester carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere to cool the planet.

If Stage 2 is approved by the Northern Territory and Commonwealth Governments, approximately 1/8 of the Islands will be destroyed in Northern Australia’s single biggest land clearing operation. Photo: ECNT

The native forests and woodlands on the Tiwi Islands are no different. Destruction of a large proportion of the highest quality, most productive eucalypt forest on the Tiwi Islands, and replacing them with short-rotation woodchip crops, has a significant climate impact.

The Northern Territory Government has found that clearing one hectare of tall forests on the Tiwi Islands releases approximately 190 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Already, plantation establishment on the Tiwi Islands has cost at least 5,700,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

If Stage 2 of this project proceeds, up to a further 13 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions will be released into the atmosphere.

Woodchip plantations cannot do the good climate work that intact, mature native forests and woodlands can.  Our native forests and woodlands should be protected from clearing and logging and left as safe and secure carbon stores.

Considering the future.

Right now there is a Senate Inquiry into the logging and land clearing on the Tiwi Islands. Over forty submissions have been received from the public, and in May the Senate Committee travelled to the Tiwi Islands to look at the land clearing, and to hear from Tiwi people about how the plantations are affecting their livelihoods, culture and aspirations for the future.

These Senators will make findings and recommendations about how the logging and clearing of the Tiwi islands forests has been managed, and might recommend that further expansion of the project is not seen as prudent. 

The Committee has been informed about the proven illegal clearing of native forest that occurred between 2005 and 2007; the huge greenhouse gas emissions caused by the clearing of the native forest; the risk that the acacia shrubs will become a major weed problem on the Islands; and concerns from Tiwi Islanders about the way decisions have been made by the Land Council, woodchip companies and the Commonwealth government.

With the absence of a viable project operator and a glut in the global hardwood woodchip market, the prospects for delivery of sustained economic and social benefits into the future seem even more unattainable should landclearing and plantation establishment remain the development model proposed for the Tiwi Islands.

The outstanding natural and cultural values of the Tiwi Islands provide the basis for a much more sustainable and much less risky economic future than woodchip plantations.  There is increasing awareness of the enormous potential of a ‘culture and conservation economy’ that optimises development of ‘green carbon’, engagement in the voluntary carbon market, Indigenous rangers, tourism and arts businesses.  

The existing woodchip plantations should be converted back to native tree species to provide high value wood products and habitat for threatened species like the Butler's Dunnart and Red Goshawk.

There must not be any further clearing of Tiwi native savannah woodland for woodchip plantations. The existing Acacia mangium plantations should be replanted to high value, native forest species to deliver significant biodiversity, carbon store and economic opportunities.

Take Action

Right now there is a Senate Inquiry into the logging and land clearing on the Tiwi Islands. Sign this online petition, and send a clear message to the Senate Inquiry not to proceed with Stage 2 of this ill-considered project. Sign online >>