The Wielangta forest is located in South East Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is notable for its role in a 2006 court case that called into question the effectiveness of Australia's cooperative Commonwealth-State forest management regime known as Regional Forest Agreement

Regional Forest Agreement

The Regional Forest Agreements are 20 year plans for the conservation and sustainable management of Australia's native forests, and are intended to provide certainty to commercial forestry operations while protecting environmental values. The 10 RFA's were progressively signed between 1997 and 2001...

s.

Environment

The Wielangta forest is part of remnant glacial refugia forest and contains blue gum eucalypt forest and pockets of cool temperate rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

. The forest is a key habitat of rare and threatened species, including the Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle

Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle

The Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle is an endangered bird of Tasmania. It is a subspecies of the more common Wedge-tailed Eagle.-Description:...

, Swift Parrot

Swift Parrot

The Swift Parrot breeds in Tasmania and migrates north to south eastern Australia from Griffith-Warialda in New South Wales and west to Adelaide in the winter. It is related to the rosellas, with the feeding habits of a lorikeet...

, Wielangta Stag Beetle

Wielangta stag beetle

Lissotes latidens, commonly known as the Wielangta Stag Beetle or Broad-toothed Stag Beetle, is a species of stag beetle which is only found in an area centred in Wielangta Forest in eastern Tasmania...

, Spotted-tail Quoll and Eastern Barred Bandicoot

Eastern Barred Bandicoot

The Eastern Barred Bandicoot was once distributed across the Basalt Plains of south west Victoria, and in Tasmania. It is a small, rabbit sized marsupial weighing less than 1 kg with a short tail and three to four whitish bars across the rump. It lives for just two to three years and is not...

. A rare orchid (Genoplesium nudum) has also been discovered in the forest. The forest forms part of the South-east Tasmania Important Bird Area

South-east Tasmania Important Bird Area

The South-east Tasmania Important Bird Area encompasses much of the land retaining forest and woodland habitats, suitable for breeding Swift Parrots and Forty-spotted Pardalotes, from Orford to Recherche Bay in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia.-Description:...

, identified as such by BirdLife International

BirdLife International

BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...

 because of its importance in the conservation of a range of woodland birds.

Logging controversy

The forest is under the control of Forestry Tasmania

Forestry Tasmania

Forestry Tasmania is a Tasmanian state government-owned corporation. It runs the state-owned forestry for tourism and logging including the Tahune Airwalk and Upper Florentine Valley.-Controversy:...

, with logging being allowed. The logging of the forest has been contentious due to the impact on rare and threatened species. Environmentalists called for the Wielangta forest area to be incorporated into a broader reserve offering full protection to environmental and biodiversity values. Some parts of Wielangta were granted formal protection in the recent Supplementary Regional Forest Agreement

Regional Forest Agreement

The Regional Forest Agreements are 20 year plans for the conservation and sustainable management of Australia's native forests, and are intended to provide certainty to commercial forestry operations while protecting environmental values. The 10 RFA's were progressively signed between 1997 and 2001...

.(Tasmania).

In 2006 Australian Greens

Australian Greens

The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...

 Senator, Bob Brown

Bob Brown

Robert James Brown is an Australian senator, the inaugural Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens and was the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia...

, took the issue of Forestry Tasmania's failure to protect endangered species in Wielangta to the Federal Court. His case was initially successful, establishing that forestry activities were impacting on those species, but an appeal by Forestry Tasmania on the interpretation of a part of the agreement was successful . In February 2007, the Tasmanian State Government and the Australian Federal Government responded by changing the text of the State's Regional Forest Agreement and making further legal appeals pointless. The new clauses make it clear that the word 'protection' relates only to whether the two respective governments deem a species to be protected rather than the meaning of the word being based on actual evidence of such.

In June 2009 Brown received a bill from Forestry Tasmania for the costs of the case and of the appeals . After a public appeal for assistance he declared he would be able to make the payment by the deadline and not risk losing his seat in the Australian Senate

Australian Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...

.

External links

• Wielangta Forest Drive Forestry Tasmania
• Bob Brown vs Forestry Tasmania trial
• Federal court case #1: Brown v Forestry Tasmania - Federal Court of Australia judgment by Marshall J - 19 December 2006
• Full bench of Federal court - appeal (case #2): Forestry Tasmania v Brown (2007) FCAFC 186 - 30 November 2007