Take Action! Logging Is Destroying Tasmania’s Ancient Forests & Pushing Wildlife To The Brink

Forestry Tasmania (FT) is destroying native old-growth forests that countless species, including the endangered Tasmanian devil, rely on for survival. Despite repeated scientific warnings and growing public concern, logging continues in some of the island’s most biodiverse and fragile ecosystems.

Among them is Tasmania’s Styx Valley of the Giants, an ancient forest now renamed Puralia’s Stand in honor of Palawa Elder Jim Everett–Puralia Meenamatta. This iconic landscape is next on the chopping block. Without urgent action, these forests, and the wildlife that depend on them, could disappear forever.

Many critical species, including the elusive Tasmanian devil, have been caught on fauna cameras in forests scheduled for logging, these unique marsupials are increasingly losing vital habitat. Once common across the island, Tasmanian devils are now listed as Endangered on both state and federal lists, and on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

These forests provide essential shelter, food, and breeding grounds for the endangered Tasmanian devil, whose populations are already severely impacted by the deadly Facial Tumor Disease, the only known contagious cancer, which has reduced wild populations by up to 90%. Further habitat loss could push them even closer to extinction.

Despite their endangered status, Forestry Tasmania persists with logging operations in these ancient forests that support diverse and irreplaceable wildlife. Conservationists argue that continued habitat loss poses a grave threat to the island’s fragile ecosystems.

“Forestry Tasmania’s bungled handling of protest arrests shows it is incapable of managing public forests responsibly. Documents obtained under Tasmania’s Right to Information laws by ABC reveal that dozens of protest charges have been dropped because of basic errors in the way FT issued directions to forest defenders,” said Jenny Weber, Campaigns Director at the Bob Brown Foundation (BBF).

Documents obtained by ABC under Right to Information laws reveal that at least 24 charges against forest defenders have been dismissed due to basic legal errors by Forestry Tasmania, including issuing orders that were overly broad, inaccurate, or simply unlawful.

In one instance, protesters were ordered off all Forestry Tasmania–managed land, an impossible demand that a court later threw out. In other cases, incorrect dates were cited for logging areas, rendering the orders invalid.

“A perfect solution to this problem is to stop evicting citizens from public forests. Premier Rockliff can protect native forests and evict the logging machines,” continued Weber. “Citizens should not be facing courts for defending native forests in a climate and biodiversity crisis.”

“Forestry Tasmania is costing precious Tasmania Police resources. They cannot even correctly define the boundaries of a logging coupe when issuing move-on orders. So we are confident they are not correctly defining boundaries while destroying the forests. They cannot be trusted to manage millions of hectares of public forests. The taxpayer-subsidized agency must be abolished,” said Weber.

To make matters worse, the Tasmanian government is currently conducting post-logging burns. Behind locked gates, Forestry Tasmania is dropping incendiaries from helicopters to ignite massive fires that destroy all organic matter and every living thing in their path.

Rather than protect Tasmania’s biodiversity, experts say Forestry Tasmania is wasting public money, overwhelming police resources, and jamming up the already-overburdened Magistrates Court.

BBF’s Forest Watch platform has become a critical tool in this important fight by tracking forests under immediate threat and bringing transparency to what is happening out of sight. You can keep track of the ongoing deforestation HERE! 

Take Action! Help save Tasmania’s ancient forests by signing Bob Brown Foundation’s petition HERE!