{"id":805877,"date":"2026-07-17T10:16:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/805877\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:16:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:16:38","slug":"forest-congress-calls-for-end-to-old-growth-logging-in-tasmania-but-environmental-groups-want-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/805877\/","title":{"rendered":"Forest Congress calls for end to old-growth logging in Tasmania but environmental groups want more"},"content":{"rendered":"

A coalition of conservationists, artists and forest industry figures has called for an end to old-growth logging in Tasmania but major environmental groups have distanced themselves from the “shared vision statement”, saying it does not go far enough.<\/p>\n

The Forest Congress began in 2023, when artist Kirsha Kaechele from Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) invited a variety of disparate groups to discuss the future of the state’s forests.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Kirsha Kaechele started the Forest Congress in 2023. (Australian Story: Simon Winter)<\/p>\n

Today, the Forest Congress released what it described as a Palawa-led push to end the harvesting of old-growth trees while supporting a “responsible” forestry industry.<\/p>\n

“We agree that forests should be managed for all their values \u2014 ecological, cultural, social and economic \u2014 with the forest health as the foundation,” the statement says.<\/p>\n

“We support an end to old-growth logging alongside the ongoing, responsible management of our native forest resources.”<\/p>\n

The statement defines old-growth forests “as those whose ecological continuity has never been interrupted by industrial felling”.<\/p>\n

\"Kirsha<\/p>\n

Kirsha Kaechele brought together members of the forestry industry, Indigenous community and environmental movement. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Historically, native logging in Tasmania was carried out selectively before it transitioned to industrial clear-felling around the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Giant trees and important habitat clumps are generally supposed to be retained in native logging operations, but larger trees are routinely felled after being deemed safety risks by contractors.<\/p>\n

Sawmilling company says it won’t accept old-growth logs<\/p>\n

The Forest Congress statement has been signed by almost 30 individuals and groups, including Palawa elders, sawmillers, artists and The Tree Project.<\/p>\n

“We acknowledge that a holistic approach must consider the whole ecosystem, including both forest and human,” the statement says.<\/p>\n

“In healing our landscape, we must care for our communities.<\/p>\n

“Regional communities should remain places where people can raise families, pursue livelihoods and shape their own futures.”<\/p>\n

Sawmilling business Neville Smith Group is one of the signatories.<\/p>\n

\"Neville<\/p>\n

Andrew Walker’s sawmilling business has signed onto the statement. (ABC News: Laura Beavis)<\/p>\n

Its CEO, Andrew Walker, today told ABC Hobart it would no longer accept old-growth logs from Tasmania’s state-owned forestry company.<\/p>\n

“We’ve actually formally written to STT [Sustainable Timber Tasmania] in the last seven days and ceased receiving any old-growth logs into our group, noting that less than 3 per cent of our supply is old growth.”<\/p>\n

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Mr Walker said about 80 per cent of its supply was from the private estate, which was mostly plantation hardwood.<\/p>\n

“So, we’ve undergone a quite rapid transition over the last four years towards plantation, noting that we do still process some native regrowth.”<\/p>\n

Mr Walker said the Forestry Congress vision statement was an important initiative.<\/p>\n

“We believe this is a really positive step forward in finding some common ground and moving forward with a new vision for forestry that does enable regrowth, harvesting and processing to continue.”<\/p>\n

A Four Corners report last month revealed the Neville Smith Group had exported whole logs from Tasmania’s native forests to Victoria for processing.<\/a><\/p>\n

Green groups call for wider environmental protections<\/p>\n

Four national environmental groups said the Forest Congress’s focus on old-growth forests was inadequate.<\/p>\n

The groups, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Wilderness Society, Wilderness Australia and Bob Brown Foundation, say all native forests should be protected.<\/p>\n

\"Bob<\/p>\n

Bob Brown says the Forest Congress statement does not go far enough to protect native forests. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Bob Brown said limiting action to old-growth forests would cover only a small portion of the state’s native forest.<\/p>\n

“What [Kirsha Kaechele] is saying effectively gives to the forest industry 96 per cent of the forests while protecting 3 or 4 per cent,” Mr Brown said.<\/p>\n

“This isn’t performance art.<\/p>\n

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“This is a serious endeavour, backed by the vast majority of the people of Australia, to end this unnecessary destruction of what’s left of our native forests and their wildlife.”<\/p>\n

Last week, the Wilderness Society formally withdrew from the Forest Congress, saying an extractive industry should have no part in the management of the state’s forests.<\/p>\n

“What we’ve seen over the past three years is just a constant dragging out of any action by the industry,” Wilderness Society forest campaigner Hugh Nicklason said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hugh Nicklason says the Wilderness Society withdrew from the Forest Congress due to the industry’s lack of action. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen constant gaming of the system.<\/p>\n

“And now, even now with this announcement [by the Forest Congress], there’s no timescale.”<\/p>\n

Government to ‘take a closer look’ at vision statement<\/p>\n

A forest “peace deal” was signed in 2012, including by the Wilderness Society, which designated native forest areas for logging, and those to be reserved.<\/p>\n

Tasmania’s native forest logging system operates under a regional forest agreement, which means it sits separately from federal environmental law.<\/p>\n

What happened when a rare bird found a place to nest near a logging coupe<\/a><\/p>\n

It was late 2021 when one of Australia’s rarest birds started to arrive in the native forests of Lonnavale. Ecologists had expected it but for a reacting forestry sector, it was “not sustainable”.<\/p>\n

New national environmental standards will be applied to the system from July next year.<\/p>\n

The system is being assessed by the Commonwealth, and would then continue to be regulated by the Tasmanian government.<\/p>\n

Tasmanian minister Bridget Archer said trees from old-growth forests made up only a small portion of what was harvested in the state.<\/p>\n

She said the government remained a strong supporter of the forestry industry, and welcomed the process behind the Forest Congress initiative.<\/p>\n

“It is fantastic to see a whole range of stakeholders coming together and having those conversations and we will take a closer look at the detail and have more to say later,” Ms Archer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coalition of conservationists, artists and forest industry figures has called for an end to old-growth logging in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,100260,15190,156113,75,379175,379179,151273,145163,379176,379178,128,379177,379174,111847],"class_list":["post-805877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-conservation-foundation","tag-bob-brown","tag-bob-brown-foundation","tag-environment","tag-forest-congress","tag-forest-peace-deal","tag-kirsha-kaechele","tag-mona","tag-neville-smith-group","tag-palawa","tag-science","tag-the-tree-project","tag-wilderness-australia","tag-wilderness-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}