An update on our work to defend forests and savanna
From Lee Point
to lutruwita
At EJA, we have a long history of using the law to defend forests across the continent. Here's an update on some of our latest work.
We’re joining the fight to protect forests in lutruwita/Tasmania.
On behalf of The Wilderness Society, we’ve just filed a landmark court appeal against Forestry Tasmania over allegations the company is logging illegally in the Styx Valley of the Giants.
The Styx Valley is home to some of the tallest trees on the planet. These breathtaking old-growth Eucalypts are globally significant, and irreplaceable habitat for iconic, threatened wildlife like swift parrots, eastern quolls, and Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles.
Yet Tasmania’s forestry regulator is failing to properly regulate Forestry Tasmania, the state’s own logging agency.
This landmark appeal is about The Wilderness Society’s right to criminally prosecute Forestry Tasmania for alleged illegal logging in the Valley of the Giants.
We’re protecting Lee Point
This Tasmanian court case comes in the same week as defenders of Lee Point in Darwin watched with devastation as the bulldozers rolled in, destroying old-growth trees to make way for a multi-million-dollar development by Defence Housing Australia.
The destruction comes after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s refusal to make a declaration under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act to protect the area from injury or desecration.
EJA lawyers have written to the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority seeking registration of sacred sites at Lee Point, on behalf of Danggalaba Traditional Owner Tibby Quall of the Batcho family.
We’ve seen corporations destroy sacred Aboriginal heritage time and time again. Our client hopes the Authority will urgently investigate his application to protect sacred sites on his Country.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the NT, on the banks of the Daly River owners of the Claravale Station are accused of illegally clearing woodland savanna – and have recently submitted plans to bulldoze thousands more hectares.
These are just a few of countless examples of rampant destruction.
They are the proof that now, more than ever, our forests and savannas need good lawyers.
That’s why at EJA, we’re not backing down on our work to protect Australia’s breathtaking forests.
Now, more than ever, our forests and savannas need good lawyers.
Will you power vital work like this to protect Australia’s incredible forests and savannas, before they’re gone?
From Lee Point to lutruwita, we’re representing clients to fight for our forests and savannas in the courtroom. We’re scrutinising rubber-stamped permits to clear land. We’re holding regulators and logging agencies to account and running hard-hitting advocacy campaigns to push for laws that actually protect nature.
Because we know how powerful the law can be when it’s used to protect the places, plants and animals that make this continent so special.
We don’t expect it to be easy.
But we know we’ll do whatever it takes to keep the trees standing – from Lee Point to lutruwita.
If you can – please donate to power more of this game-changing legal work.
Read more
Defending native forests
From towering Mountain Ash trees to ancient Gondwanan rainforests found nowhere else on Earth, Australia’s native forests are magnificent. We’re using the law to defend vital native forests from logging.
Save Lee Point
A legal intervention to stop Defence Housing Australia from bulldozing Aboriginal cultural heritage near Darwin.
Land clearing is exploding in the NT
The Northern Territory is home to some of the largest intact savanna on Earth. But what was once the least damaged and polluted savanna in the world is now one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on this continent.
Improving Australia’s environment laws
Our current nature laws are broken and full of holes. Right now, we have a once in a generation opportunity to fix them. So we have to get this right.
