The Forest Industries Association of Tasmania campaign launched today is designed to block Tasmanians’ desire for protection of Tasmania’s native forests (as evidenced by recent opinion polls*) by hiding the truth about native forest logging and export wood-chipping, said Environment Tasmania today.

“20,000 football fields of our native forests are approved for logging in Tasmania every year,” said Dr Phill Pullinger, Director of Environment Tasmania,

“More than 85% of the timber volume coming out of our native forests goes directly to woodchips,”

“Yet forest industry bodies continue to hide behind the logging and wood-chipping of our native forests using the very small quantities of timber that end up in high value products as a smokescreen,”

“Most Tasmanian environment groups support the sourcing of small quantities of native forest timbers for high-value products – but it is absolutely unnecessary to keep destroying our native forests to maintain a low-volume, high-value native forest timber sector,”

“This campaign by FIAT is designed to keep commodity exports from our native forests alive – when most Tasmanians* and world markets want an end to commodity native forest logging,” he concluded

* An October 2009 Essential Research poll found that 90% of Tasmanians agreed with the statement; I think it’s possible that we can both protect our native forests and maintain jobs in the timber industry and that is the policy I want the next Tasmanian government to implement. Only 10% agreed with the statement: I think the current policy of logging in Tasmania’s native forests should continue because it is the only way to protect jobs in the timber industry.