We wanted to take the time and tell you about what our friend Miranda Gibson has been up to. For the last 154 days, long time forest defense activist Miranda Gibson has been living in an old growth Eucalyptus tree (named Observer tree) nearly 200 feet up in the heart of Australia’s Tasmania’s southern forests. The forest that Miranda has been calling home is due to be logged any day now, and she has vowed to stay up in Observer tree until the forest is protected.

With the help of a decent solar panel, Miranda has turned the tree top platform into a fully functional media center. She has an awesome blog; Observer Tree, which allows the world to keep up with her forest defense work in protecting the beautiful Tasmania forest. The Observer Tree blog is frequently updated with video footage of Miranda and all things forest defense. You should really check it out and keep up to date with her campaign. Miranda has already broken the record for the longest tree sit in a Tasmania forest, and from the looks of it, she is only getting started.

Why?

This area of forest is in an area earmarked as one of Tasmania’s future forest reserves. It was promised protection by the State and Federal governments. Yet, if the logging industry has its way, it is going to be logged this summer! What is really going on in Tasmania’s forests?

A brief history of the Tasmanian Forest Negotiations:

2011 could have been a year of celebration for Tasmania’s wild forest. In October 2010, A statement of principles signed by Environmental NGO’s, industry groups and Unions paved the way for comprehensive forest protection and a restructuring of the logging industry. But, more than a year later, not one tree has been saved, more cash has been delivered to the timber industry and destructive logging continues in some of our island’s most sensitive and iconic forest areas. So what went wrong?

A series of broken promises, industry pressure and Government backpeddling have jeapordised the progress of this historic agreement.

First, in December 2010, the Tasmanian Government failed to implement a promised moratorium on the logging of 572,000 hectares of high conservation value forest. Forestry Tasmania, the State-owned forest management agency, flaunted this failure of leadership by pushing ahead with roading and logging in some of Tasmania’s most contentious forest areas.

In August 2011, the Tasmanian and Federal Governments signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) that promised immediate protection for 430,000 hectares of high conservation forest. The IGA stipulated that the Tasmanian Government would ‘ensure that the 430,000 hectares of State Forest identified … is not accessed [for logging]‘ and that the Commonwealth would compensate any contract holder affected by the protection of these areas.

But the agreement also required that hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of sawlogs and veneer peeler logs must continue to be supplied to the industry. Malaysian logging company Ta Ann Holdings has been promised an ongoing supply of over 265,000 cubic metres of timber per year from Tasmania’s forests. Forestry Tasmania argued that they could not supply this timber without continuing to log within the 430,00 hectares. In another backflip, the Tasmanian and Commonwealth Governments have turned a blind eye to the ongoing logging of pristine forests within an area they earmarked for immediate protection.

As 2011 draws to a close, Tasmanians are suffering the loss of hundreds of hectares of native forest that should have been saved from logging. Activists have occupied forests on the flanks of Mt Mueller to document this destruction. Prime Minister Julia Gillard must keep her word before the trail of broken promises undermines this crucial opportunity to protect Tasmania’s forests.  Read the rest of this entry »