Aboriginal community leader Ruth Langford has been arrested at a native forest logging protest in southern Tasmania.
According to the Bob Brown Foundation, police evicted a number of "forest defenders" before arresting Ms Langford in a yellow gum forest on the western side of the Mount Wellington range on Thursday morning.
It comes after Ms Langford was arrested in a logging coupe on Tasmania's east coast in January.
The Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman said her actions reflected a choice to not stand by and watch the destruction of one of the few intact native forests left in south east Tasmania.
"I am acting to uphold my cultural obligation to protect Country," Ms Langford said.
"Country that encompasses the natural systems and cycles that provide for us all.
"It's imperative that we change the archaic logging practices to ensure that we protect our water catchments and that we choose a way that makes better economic sense."
Ms Langford said law in Country continues to exist across the continent, and that "it has never been extinguished and never ceded".
"If you live on this Country then you are obligated, under this pre-existing law, to protect nature," she said.
"No colonial law can alter this truth and responsibility.
"We are all obligated to uphold this Law and protect Country. I am simply honouring my responsibility."
Bob Brown Foundation campaign manager, Jenny Weber, said logging endemic ancient yellow gums and clearfelling celery-top pines is a criminal act in a climate and extinction crisis.
"Yellow gums are endemic to south-eastern Tasmania and only found on plateaus and mountains," Ms Weber said.
"These Russell Ridge forests should never have been logged. A decade ago, when the Russell Ridge Conservation Area was declared, these adjoining ancient forests were sacrificed to the loggers.
"The logging of these forests is a tragedy for this island but these courageous defenders are taking a stand. There is still time for the logging machines to be evicted and the remaining forests saved."
More to come.
