The Bob Brown Foundation's legal challenge to test the validity of the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement and attempt to end logging in Tasmania's native forests has failed.
In a judgement released today, the Federal Court found that the Tasmania's RFA is valid, rejecting the two legal arguments put forward by the Bob Brown Foundation.
It's leader Bob Brown admitted defeat to its legal challenge but said that the fight to end native logging in Tasmania would continue.
"We have not won this case but it doesn't alter our campaign to save native forests one iota. In fact it will embolden us," Dr Brown said.
"I feel doubly resolved to have our Foundation and thousands of supporters we have in Tasmania and beyond, taking on the derelict remnants of the native forest logging industry in Tasmania."
The Federal Court's judgement means that the BFF's injunction to halt logging in 19 coupes in Tasmania also ends today.
Dr Brown said protesters were already on their way into the Tarkine to resume protest activity and attempt to halt the felling of trees.
"As of 11 o'clock today, those injunctions no longer pertain and so, the Tasmanian government and the logging industry can go back out there and start logging the trees in which swift parrots are nesting and feeding as they head to extinction," he said.
"We are on the side of the swift parrots, not the chainsaws. It is simple as that."
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Dr Brown, while disappointed, said that he had been in "worse situations than this", referring to the Franklin River Dam controversy in the 1970s.
"We fought and the Franklin runs free to the sea, and Tasmania's forests will be free of chainsaws before too long because that is what the people of Tasmania and the people of Australia want.
"This is a setback for us, but it wasn't going to solve the issue of native logging. It would not have meant it would of stop tomorrow, it was going to be a series of injunctive actions to follow up.
"This is a speed bump, but we are moving right ahead."
