Forest Conservation Victoria have set up a peaceful protest to stop logging operations within vital threatened species habitat and old growth forest along the Murrindindi River in Toolangi this morning, where a threatened Sooty Owl nesting site has been reported.
A person is currently suspended 20 meters up a tree on a platform attached to logging machinery, protecting the area from being cleared for paper. Continued destruction of some of the world’s largest carbon stores, the Mountain Ash forests of Victoria, has left these ecosystems on the brink of collapse.
With the city of Melbourne having just declared a climate and biodiversity emergency and Threatened Species Day this coming Saturday, it’s absurd that these logging practices are continuing with business as usual. Our government is dragging its feet on turning its words into action and we’re losing time we just can’t afford.
Few people know that Victoria’s native forests are some of the most carbon dense forests in the world, yet they are still being cut down to make Reflex paper.We will continue to stand up against these practices until we see an end to native forest logging.
Destruction of these important ecosystems cannot continue. Species such as the Sooty Owl, Leadbeaters Possum and Greater Glider are being pushed to extinction, and vital carbon stores lost.