00:02Every year, the swift parrot migrates to Tasmania to breed, nesting in tree cavities over spring and summer.
00:09For at least four years, the critically endangered birds have been seen in these forests at Lonervale in southern Tasmania.
00:16It was an area with very strong habitat qualities.
00:20The area is regularly logged, but the presence of the parrots prompted a rethink.
00:25The Forest Practices Authority, or FPA, assessed each area set aside for logging, called a coop, in greater detail to
00:33try to protect more habitat.
00:35There were supposed to be trees retained. That hasn't happened.
00:39This tree was at least four metres wide and up to 500 years old.
00:44The regulator says it was likely felled for safety reasons. Trees alongside streams were not to be touched.
00:51There's logging that's happened all through this streamside reserve and then burning.
00:55The regulator described the protection for this coop as being above and beyond what would normally have occurred.
01:01These forests aren't part of the designated swift parrot important breeding area, despite being regularly used by the critically endangered
01:09species.
01:09For decades, the Lonervale forests have been logged coop by coop by coop.
01:15The logged areas are burnt and then re-sewn, but each time the parrot's habitat is degraded.
01:21Leaving a little bit here or there, that's not a conservation strategy that is going to work.
01:29It's just continual reduction in the availability of habitat.
01:35Matt Webb has studied swift parrot behaviour for two decades. The government has relied on his data.
01:43Each year we return to the same places and then there's another 100 hectares gone.
01:51Go down the road and another 50 hectares gone.
01:54A report by a government economist estimated that public forestry company Sustainable Timber Tasmania would lose $12 million in revenue
02:03over three years if logging ceased at Lonervale altogether.
02:07And contractors would lose $10 million.
02:10That's all the balance. So if you look at the balance in terms of economic, environment and social outcomes, that
02:16should be all included.
02:17From July next year, there will be new national environmental standards for native forestry.
02:22But the industry wants certainty well before then.
02:25What we really want from the federal government is one clear guarantee that no forest business within Tasmania will be
02:34worse off under these reforms.
02:36The FPA says Tasmanian law requires it to consider economic factors when major regulatory changes are made.
02:43Resources Minister Felix Ellis says the system is adaptable to swift parrot seasonal movements.
02:49Class of the Andrews.
02:53Typical
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