The Tasmanian Conservation Trust is challenging the validity of a decision by the Forest Practices Authority (FPA) to certify a forest practices plan (FPP) that purports to authorise the landowner to clear 1,804 hectares of native forest and convert it to pasture for cattle grazing.
The proposed clearing operation is near Ansons Bay. The area proposed to be cleared is greater than all the permitted clearing under the Forest Practices Act 1985 state-wide for the last three years.
The TCT’s application is seeking that the Supreme Court declare the FPP invalid, with the goal of preventing the forests being cleared. The court case is listed for hearing on 2-3 May 2022. We need donations to fund this court case. You can help by donating on our website.
The TCT is the applicant in the proceedings, and the respondent parties are the FPA and the current landowner, Mr Jonathan Tucker MP, the Liberal Member for Lyons.
Environmental values
The forests proposed to be cleared are near Ansons Bay in north-east Tasmania. Most of the forest is in one contiguous area on the eastern side of the Ansons River, south-west of Ansons Bay town. The values on the property were documented in the decision of the Forest Practices Tribunal in 2009 following an appeal taken by the then-landowner, Mr Tucker’s late father.
The Tribunal found the forests to have important values including:
• 490 hectares of Eucalyptus ovata forest, which was then listed as endangered under state law (and is now nationally listed as a critically endangered ecological community);
• habitat for nationally listed threatened spotted-tailed quoll, New Holland mouse and Tasmanian devil; and
• eight state and nationally listed threatened plant species.
The E. Ovata on the property is perhaps the largest concentration of this endangered community on non-protected land in Tasmania. E. Ovata is also habitat for the endangered swift parrot.
Finally, forests play an important role in mitigating climate change by storing carbon (this is not a consideration in the FPA process).
Background
This story originates in 2009. The then-landowner applied to the FPA for the certification of a forest practices plan to allow for the clearing and conversion of vegetation on the Ansons Bay property. This initial application, submitted on 26 June 2009, was refused by the FPA and the refusal was upheld in the Forest Practices Tribunal on 27 October 2009. The landowner says that compensation was sought from the state government for the loss of the use of this land, pursuant to provisions under the Nature Conservation Act 2002 (Tas). It is further alleged by the landowner that the application for compensation was refused in 2014.
It would appear that, as compensation had been refused, the FPA believed it was required to approve the original application under its interpretation of the Nature Conservation Act. In 2015 TCT filed an application in the Supreme Court of Tasmania to have the decision to certify the permit declared invalid and set aside. On 13 August 2015, with the agreement of the parties to the case at the time, the proceedings were adjourned to a date to be fixed (the legal term for postponement). In July 2021, the current landowner, Mr Tucker, was joined as a party to the proceedings. Since then, the matter has been set down for hearing on 2 and 3 May 2022.
You can help
With your help we can save these endangered forests from destruction. TCT has engaged the Environmental Defenders Office to represent us in this case. Lisa De Ferrari SC of the Victorian Bar and Kay Chan of the Victorian Bar have been briefed as our counsel. If the clearing proceeds, it will be the largest clearing to occur on private land in Tasmania for over ten years. This single clearing operation is more than all permitted clearing under the Forest Practices Act 1985 state-wide for the last three years.
The FPA annual report for 2020-21 (see separate article) shows that the rate of clearing and conversion (to plantation, pasture or other agricultural uses) in Tasmania has dropped to low levels, averaging 600 hectares per year for nine or the last ten years. The one outlier would be Ansons Bay proposal, should it proceed.
TCT works to protect our precious natural environment, biodiversity and threatened native species. With your help we can stop the destruction of 1,800 ha of native forest at Ansons Bay. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Tasmanian Conservation Trust.
Donations will assist TCT in running this court case and in its fight to protect Tasmania’s beautiful native forests.
Make a donation on our website to help us protect these forests and endangered native species.
Peter McGlone
CEO, Tasmanian Conservation Trust
Clearing for Agriculture and Plantations in Tasmania
The graph below shows permitted clearing and conversion in Tasmania for the 20 years from 1999–2000 to 2019–2020 under the Forest Practices Act 1985. This data relates to permitted forest clearing and conversion (see definition below) to plantation, pasture or other agricultural uses and does not include native forest logging followed by silvicultural regeneration.
Lawful native forest clearing for these uses has declined in Tasmania over the last 20 years. Over the last ten years it has remained steady at relatively low levels. The rate of clearing and conversion for these uses has flat-lined to low levels for nine out of the last ten years, averaging 600 hectares per year for those nine years. The one big outlier in 2014–15 is the Ansons Bay proposal. The FPA report records the proposal as if the clearing had occurred in that year. The 2020–21 year is not shown in the graph. A total of 558 hectares were cleared in the 2020-21 year.
Note: the graph includes clearing for the year the FPP is certified and may include clearing that has not yet occurred.
The Tasmanian Government Policy for Maintaining A Permanent Native Forest Estate, 30 June 2017, includes the following definition.
‘Clearance and conversion means the permanent or long-term removal of significant areas of native forest and its replacement by non-native vegetation, such as plantations, orchards, crops or pastures; different planted native species such as a blue gum plantation, or unvegetated developments, such as artificial water bodies, buildings and other infrastructure.’
Peter McGlone