On May 13, 2005, deep in the heart of the Styx Valley, the Prime Minister John Howard and Premier Paul Lennon signed the historic Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement. This agreement reserved one million hectares of old growth forest; permanently maintained the native forest estate at 95 per cent of the 1996 extent for public and private land; phased out 1080 in public forests; and reduced the clear felling of mature forest.

The agreement reserved environmental icons and outlined a transition for the timber industry to re-growth and plantation saw logs. As the agreement was based on the principles of sustainable development, balancing competing demands from the environment movement, the timber industry, and the community it was seen as a final compromise. It was not pleasing to all, but elements were applauded by all sides of the forest debate.

On March 6, 2006, the San Francisco based Rainforest Action Network (RAN) held protests at Australian embassies and consuls, to make a series of claims about Tasmanian forest practices; the government-owned forest manager, Forestry Tasmania; and a Tasmanian integrated timber sawmilling and processing company, Gunns Limited. This company is proposing an environmentally friendly elemental chlorine free pulp mill for Tasmania. RAN sought to give publicity to a report by the International Green movement and the views of a British MP on Tasmanian forests.