This morning in southern Tasmania, a protest is taking place in the forest habitat of critically endangered swift parrots, where logging has been happening recently. Viola Barnes has attached herself to the gate that locks the public out of these forests. Ms Barnes is supported by a group of Bob Brown Foundation forest defenders.
This is her statement: ‘I, Viola Barnes, am attached to this gate, taking action out of frustration. I do not want to be helpless, I want to be heard. The time to say no to this senseless destruction of the ancient forests of Tasmania is well overdue.
‘These beautiful forests are important for their diversity, beauty, and life-giving force. They are the lifeblood of our planet, food for our souls. Please, come and stand up with us,’ she said.
Jenny Weber, Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaigns Manager, is also at the protest. ‘The logging machines in this swift parrot habitat must be evicted,’ she said. ‘We are here to rescue the habitat from logging destruction. We have arrived while the new road is being pushed into this swift parrot habitat, so there is still time to save the remaining forests here.
‘We have scores of recordings of swift parrots and masked owls just from the last two weeks inside this forest, before and during the logging. The critically endangered swift parrot depends on hollow-bearing trees for breeding and these forests provide this habitat,’ said Jenny Weber.
Responsible
‘Premier Rockliff and Prime Minister Albanese are responsible for this crime,’ she said.
‘Our governments are doing everything they can to send the swift parrot to extinction by sanctioning the logging of their habitat. Tasmania’s southern forests are the swift parrots chosen nurseries for the coming summer and they need every last piece of all breeding habitat left intact,’ said Jenny Weber.
‘We wrote to Premier Rockliff, Forestry Tasmania and the Forest Practices Authority before the logging started and soon after it started, recommending that the forests be protected from destruction,’ said BBF Campaigner Erik Hayward.
‘The southern forests are where critically endangered swift parrots have arrived to breed for the coming season – the species can’t survive returning to less habitat every year,’ he said.
The Bob Brown Foundation is calling for an end to native forest logging nationwide. In Tasmania’s southern forests, this devastating, ongoing logging is destroying critical habitat of birds with nowhere else on Earth to breed.
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