Sustainable Timbers Tasmania (STT) have been taking select tourism industry operators and Dorset Council representatives to the proposed logging areas of Krushka’s forests. Trying to sell them on the idea that if a forest is felled behind a logging PR buffer zone, and nobody easily sees much of it, the forest didn't really get felled!
This is part of the process for deciding on the Derby Master Plan, which includes the future of our Gondwana native forests and how our region will be managed. So far this has not included sharing of information to stakeholders from the local community, or Blue Derby Wild – despite repeated requests.
We know logging and burning of our native forests is driving native species extinction and is undermining our natural systems ability to draw down carbon, and help tackle the increasingly urgent climate crisis. Carrying on with logging as usual, with a few PR buffers fixes nothing.
This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released updated report showing that we need to pull out all the stops in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and to draw down carbon from the atmosphere. Human activity is changing the Earth’s climate in “unprecedented” ways, with some of the changes now inevitable and “irreversible”. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned in its landmark report released on Monday that only rapid and drastic reductions in greenhouse gases in this decade can prevent widespread devastation and extreme weather.
Absorbing carbon dioxide, transpiring oxygen and cooling the landscape is exactly what intact Gondwana native forests do every day, and by logging these forests we are continuing to contribute to dangerous climate change. Hiding this logging behind a PR buffer to spin it to the media, and tourism brand, that it’s just not happening is self-defeating and reckless.
The forests of northeast Tasmania are worth more standing for climate action, biodiversity and their ecosystem services, not just as greenscreens for our tourism industry.
Help us stand up for the protection of our forests and send a clear message to STT, the Dorset Council and tourism industry representatives that we will continue to shine the spotlight on unsustainable logging that is going on behind PR buffer spin.
Contact the Dorset Council ( dorset@dorset.tas.gov.au ) and ask them what the Derby Master Plan has in store for three forest areas in Krushka’s and Atlas that are scheduled for logging.
Our forests are worth more standing for climate action, biodiversity, and the future of our community.