The fate of Australia’s rare and precious Swift Parrot hangs in the balance after decades of logging in the Tasmanian forests where it lives.
Dodgy logging deals that have been in force for decades, called Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs), mean native forest logging is exempt from national environment law.
The Tasmanian RFA is currently under review, and has catastrophically failed to deliver social, economic and environmental outcomes for Lutruwita/Tasmania.
At the same time, right now, proposed laws before the Federal Parliament could scrap the exemption, protect native forests and give the critically endangered waylitja/Swift Parrot a pathway to survive. These laws will likely be debated in the Senate over the coming fortnight.
Images of Swift Parrots are available here (Pic credit: Andrew Silcocks)
QUOTES
Sam Szoke-Burke, biodiversity campaigner for the Wilderness Society, says:
“Despite the government’s commitments to no new extinctions, Australia’s iconic Swift Parrot is declining as swiftly as it is known to fly. Australia’s world class nature deserves laws that actually protect forests and stop extinctions.”
“The Albanese government should be making the policy changes needed to enable Australia’s native wildlife to thrive, not flirting with the prospect of watering down timid reforms. The community expects nature laws that work—that means laws that protect forests from deforestation and end extinctions.”
Environmental Justice Australia senior counsel Danya Jacobs, says:
“While Tanya Plibersek and the Labor government in Canberra drag their heels on reforms to Australia’s environment laws, our rare and precious animals and plants are being destroyed as we speak.”
“Minister Plibersek can make simple amendments to Australia’s environment laws to end the absurd exemptions for deforestation, and protect critical habitat for our most imperilled species like the Swift Parrot.”
BirdLife Australia campaign manager Andrew Hunter says:
“BirdLife's analysis clearly shows how the Tasmanian RFA and logging of native forests is destroying the habitat of this incredible species.”
“Removing the exemption from our federal nature laws that enables logging of the habitat of endangered species is critical not only to saving the Swift Parrot, it’s critical to the success of our new Nature Positive laws.”
CRITICAL MOMENT TO PROTECT 'SWIFTIES'
The logging of native forests in Tasmania is one of main reasons the Swift Parrot is facing extinction. The fastest parrot on Earth is expected to be extinct in the wild within a decade if the destruction of its nesting and foraging habitat does not end.
Right now, the Albanese government has an opportunity to protect what remains of the Swift Parrot’s remaining forests, with the ”nature positive” bills poised to be debated by the Senate.
The exemption that enables logging to occur in endangered species habitat should be removed as part of a suite of changes to the bills. Such an amendment was moved by MP Dr Sophie Scamps in the lower house, but was rejected by both the government and the opposition. Environment groups are calling for the legal loopholes that allow for continued deforestation - native forest logging and land clearing for agriculture - to be removed from federal laws.
The bills to be debated would establish a federal environment data office, a federal Environment Protection Agency, and integrate these new institutions into the current Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC). The calls for the end of the RFA exemption for native forest logging have been backed in by Senate crossbenchers like ACT Senator David Pocock.
DESTRUCTION OF HABITAT
There are many documented examples where logging of Swift Parrot habitat has occurred against expert advice or where management obligations, including 50 metre buffers around nesting habitat or sightings of Swift Parrots, have not been enforced or complied with:
• 2023 - The Snow Hill coupe (SHO50B) was logged despite large flocks of Swift Parrots being observed and photographed by locals on multiple occasions.
• 2021 - Two logging coupes in the Denison Valley near Huonville (DN009G and RU034B), both of which contained important Swift Parrot habitat, were logged.
• 2018 - Barnback Coupe (BB025A), a coupe containing high numbers of old trees (>150 yrs) and high-quality Swift Parrot nesting and foraging habitat was clearfelled despite observations of Swift Parrots nesting here in 2016.
• 2017 - One of the most alarming examples of negligence of Swift Parrot management logging of a long-term scientific monitoring site for Swift Parrots known as Tyler’s Hill (Coupe 3034A), a monitoring site of the Australian National University’s Difficult Bird Research Group.
• 2016 - Coupe HP010C was logged despite the Forest Practices Authority describing it as “an outstanding example of remaining habitat” and containing “important breeding habitat” Swift Parrots.
Map of Annual Non-Plantation Coupes within Swift Parrot Key Biodiversity Areas in STT 3-Year Production Plans (2017-2022)
Note: Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) are 'sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity’, in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. The Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (IUCN 2016) sets out globally agreed criteria for the identification of KBAs worldwide.
CONTACT:
- Miki Perkins for Environmental Justice Australia on 03 8341 3110 and [email protected]
--- MEDIA RELEASE ENDS ---
We acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Custodians of the lands across Australia on which we live and work, and to their Elders, past and present.
The information in this message and any attachments may be confidential and legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you must not read, forward, print, copy, disclose or use in any way the information in this message or any attachment it contains. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete all copies of the message and any attachments.
