Failure by Tasmania’s Premier Rockliff to prevent the destruction of swift parrot breeding habitat has been called into question today as protests return to a logging area in the south of Tasmania.
‘Premier Rockliff is incapable of preventing the extinction of the swift parrot, so Minister Plibersek must intervene,’ said Bob Brown Foundation Campaigner Erik Hayward. ‘Federal Environment Minister Plibersek must rescue the Swift Parrots as Premier Rockliff allows ongoing logging of their breeding habitat.
‘Rescuing swift parrots from extinction is currently left to community members monitoring and defending the habitat of this critically endangered parrot,’ he said.
This morning Jennie-Maree Bock, 66, is attached with a chain to the access gate into the controversial swift parrot logging coupe on the Kermandie Divide near Geeveston.
Brent Rogers, 45, of Deloraine, has walked into the forests that are being logged and locked onto a logging machine.
Protection or extinction?
‘Premier Rockliff may want to oversee wildlife extinctions, so we call on the federal government to step in to remove the logging machines destroying this important swift parrot breeding habitat,’ said Erik Hayward.
‘As recommended by the IUCN in 2015, all swift parrot habitat on public land must be placed in secure protection.
‘During the last fortnight, we have made 28 records of swift parrots inside this forest currently being logged. Every one of these 28 records has been from our Foundation and reported to Premier Rockliff and his logging agencies, still, logging continues unabated,’ he said.
The Bob Brown Foundation says that in accordance with the KD022C Forest Practices Plan and with recommendation 11b of the Threatened Species Adviser, STT must immediately cease logging operations within 500m of a new swift parrot record and conduct an assessment. The continuation of logging is in contravention of these recommendations.
‘Logging of native forests is causing the swift parrots path to extinction,’ said Erik Hayward.
‘For the wild places in Lutruwita/ Tasmania, for the species that live within them and to retain this fragile and vastly unknown ecosystem, native forest logging must end.’
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