Today in the Supreme Court of Tasmania the landmark case on unlawful logging in Tasmania’s native forests commenced by Blue Derby Wild against the Forest Practices Authority and Sustainable Timber Tasmania has had a trial date set for Monday May 9, 2022.
We are looking forward to exposing the unlawful logging practices we have documented in the two areas of Krushka’s forests around the iconic Blue Derby Mountain Bike trails, which has direct implications for native forests across Tasmania. Our claim is that the Forest Practices Plan (FPP) which determines the logging of our forests is unlawful as the two plaintiffs in the Forest Practices Authority and Sustainable Timber Tasmania have failed to properly authorise the delegated officers.
This is what underpins the acknowledgement by the Tasmanian government that native forest logging has been taking place in Tasmania unlawfully for years, if not decades. Our work as a volunteer community group has uncovered ongoing and systemic problems with how native forest logging is authorised, regulated and enacted both legislatively, and on the ground when the forests are falling.
Our test case is focused on two very specific High Tourism Value forests around the tourism hotspot of Derby Tasmania in Bass. Yet every forest in Tasmania that is logged under the current system is riddled with the same problems associated with unlawful logging. The exposure of unlawful logging and the progress of this case has already triggered the Tasmanian government to declare they will change laws retrospectively to protect their government business enterprise, Sustainable Timber Tasmania.
This will not fix the damage already done to our forests, our communities and the market implications that Tasmanian native forest products, whether that be woodchips, sawn timber, plywood, wood pellets, and Tasmanian tree ferns sold to garden centres like Bunnings, have all been - and still are - being logged unlawfully.
This case run by a volunteer based community group is your chance to join the growing movement of people standing up for our forests for their environmental values, heritage values, climate values, biodiversity values and high tourism value. Donate to the Blue Derby Wild legal fighting fund (BSB 313 140 ACC 1229 4120), and be part of the community effort to protect our native forests from unlawful logging.
Our forests are worth more standing!