Tasmanian-based environmental group released the statement below on October 11.
* * *
Ten protesters from environmental group Code Green have blocked a road that leads to at least two active logging coupes in east Ben Lomond in Tasmania鈥檚 north-east. One protester was suspended in a tree attached to a tripod in the middle of the road.
The coupes are within the 430,000 hectares highlighted for immediate protection in the Intergovernmental Agreement of August 7, signed by the federal and state governments.
Code Green's Jared Irwin said: 鈥淭his is an area that should have been given immediate protection on March 15 this year. Instead we are still seeing machines clearing what has been identified by both the state and federal governments as being of high conservation value.
鈥淐ode Green demands immediate protection for the 572,000 hectares of high conservation value forest identified by environmental NGOs and for the government to enforce the immediate withdrawal of all forestry operations within the 430,000 hectares identified in the of October 19, 2010.鈥
Spokesperson for Forestry Tasmania, Ken Jeffreys, recently stated that every sawmill in the state would have to close if logging in the 430,000 hectares in question was stopped.
Code Green asked Jeffreys why there are saw logs being left in coupes to rot and split when he is claiming that the processing of these logs is critical to the continuation of the industry.
Code Green are willing and committed to cease protest activity in these contentious high conservation value areas as soon as logging stops and the areas are placed in formal reserves.