Statement: Forestry Tasmania’s new three year logging plan shows an industry in denial

The Wilderness Society condemns Forestry Tasmania’s new three year logging plan, which shows an industry in denial of their world’s worst practices and hellbent on continuing on with destruction. 

Forestry Tasmania released their new three-year plan on 1 July, amid ongoing nation-wide public criticism of the native forest logging industry’s commercial and industrial practices. It comes in the wake of increasing pressure for a national reckoning with the industry’s destructive nature.

Tasmania currently logs old forests, rainforests, water supply catchments, steep slopes, engages in clearfelling practices, is destroying some of the last habitat for a number of threatened species, is reliant on the public purse, has incredibly high carbon emissions, and the most voluminous product by far is woodchips for export (82% in 24-25) - all with dismal social license and without the consent of the rightful owners, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.

These practices are all continued in the highly controversial new three year plan. 

Even by Forestry Tasmania’s own weak definition of ‘old growth’, there are approximately 4,850ha scheduled to be logged in the next three years. Further to this, over half of coupes and total area scheduled to be logged have not been industrially clearfelled before, meaning they are primary forests with significant values. Many of these forests have never been industrially logged in any form. 

Rainforests also continue to be logged at scale, including in the largest temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, Takayna / Tarkine, where 21 logging coupes are scheduled to be logged. 

Clearfelling remains prominent, with 170 coupes scheduled, including many areas with significant social, cultural, and environmental values. Other practices such as ‘aggregated retention’, known to environmentalists as ‘clearfell-with-lipstick’, remain common.

Known habitat for threatened species will continue to be routinely logged. This includes known key habitat for the critically endangered swift parrot, including 5,750ha within ‘swift parrot important breeding areas’ (SPIBA). Some of the most controversial coupes are in Snow Hill and Lonnavale, where swift parrots are known to breed, but don't have protections under a SPIBA. 

Logging also continues in Lutruwita / Tasmania’s iconic Central Highlands, in the upper water catchment of the Timtumili Minanya / Derwent River, where 108 coupes are scheduled. The logging in this area is widely viewed as the worst logging still happening in Australia. 

The logging schedule maintains many highly controversial logging coupes that Palawa and environmentalists have been active in trying to protect for their various cultural, ecological, and environmental values. Included in these are ‘Puralia’s Stand’ (known as ‘TN062G’), where Uncle Jim Everett puralia meenamatta was arrested in 2024.