Rally to defend protected Tas forests

Hundreds of protesters have rallied in defence of World Heritage-listed forests in Tasmania.

Almost 2000 people demonstrated in the Upper Florentine Valley on Sunday in defiance of the government's proposal to the World Heritage Committee to delist swaths of protected forest.

The Bob Brown Foundation's Jenny Weber said the outstanding turnout reflected a strong opposition to the government's plan to remove 74,000-hectares of forest from the Tasmanian World Heritage area.

"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," she said on Sunday.

Earlier this month, the state government unveiled its intention to earmark hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest for logging with plans to repeal the Tasmanian Forestry Agreement.