About 2000 people rallied in Tasmania’s Upper Florentine Valley on April 27 to defend World Heritage listed forests.
The rally was organised by the Bob Brown Foundation to oppose the proposed removal of the Upper Florentine from the World Heritage Area by the federal government.
Organisers say the proposal will exclude some of the world’s most intact temperate forests and some of the tallest hardwood forests on Earth and would allow them to be opened up to environmentally destructive practices such as logging.
Speakers included Australian Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne, Markets for Change CEO Peg Putt, Still Wild Still Threatened's Miranda Gibson and Home and Away actor Lisa Gormley.
The Bob Brown Foundation's campaign manager, Jenny Weber, said: "The outstanding turnout in the Upper Florentine forests clearly shows that Australians are very proud of their World Heritage forests. We are sending a strong message to UNESCO that we love our spectacular forests of outstanding universal value, and the Australian community will stand up to defend them.
"The Australian community strongly opposes the government's proposal to the World Heritage Committee to remove 74,000 hectares of World Heritage listed forests from the Tasmanian World Heritage Area.”
An opinion poll conducted by Galaxy research across Australia in March this year found that most Australians oppose the government plan to remove these forests from the World Heritage Area.
Overall, 71% want the 74,000 hectares protected from logging, compared with just 10% that support logging in the area.
A decision will be made at the upcoming meeting of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in Doha from June 15 to 25.