Forest defenders take action in the Styx Valley, Tasmania

Two for­est actions took place in the Styx Val­ley this week. On Tues­day morn­ing, com­mu­ni­ty activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened halt­ed work on a new bridge as a for­est defend­er locked onto forestry machin­ery for over 10 hours before being cut off by police. Yes­ter­day, activists con­duct­ed a peace­ful walk in to stop the indus­tri­al scale destruc­tion of ancient forests locat­ed in coupe SX10F.

See media releas­es and audio links below…
MEDIA RELEASE

Tues­day, 15 Jan­u­ary 2008

For­est defend­ers take action in the Styx Val­ley, Tas­ma­nia

This morn­ing, com­mu­ni­ty activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened halt­ed work on the con­struc­tion of a new bridge across the Styx Riv­er. If built, this bridge will pro­vide increased log truck access to the glob­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant stands of giant euca­lypts locat­ed in the val­ley.

“Tas­ma­nia is cur­rent­ly in a state of envi­ron­men­tal emer­gency. Vast tracts of old growth forests are being destroyed and sent to the chip­per in order to fur­ther inflate the already gross­ly bulging bank accounts of a select few. Right now, in coupe SX10F, chain­saws and bull­doz­ers are rip­ping apart some of our most pre­cious nat­ur­al her­itage” said Still Wild Still Threat­ened spokesper­son Ula Majew­s­ki.

“The com­mu­ni­ty is being locked out of their own forests all over the state, while local cli­mate crim­i­nals Forestry Tas­ma­nia employ their usu­al far­ci­cal spin and claim that this bridge will be used pri­mar­i­ly for tourists. What this bridge will do is increase the whole­sale destruc­tion of some of the island’s most sig­nif­i­cant car­bon sinks” said Ms Majew­s­ki.

Recent devel­op­ments at the Bali cli­mate con­fer­ence have fur­ther rein­forced the impor­tance of halt­ing the defor­esta­tion and degra­da­tion of car­bon sinks. Euca­lyp­tus reg­nans old growth forests, such as those locat­ed in the Styx Val­ley, have been shown to store huge amounts of car­bon.

“We are call­ing on the Rudd gov­ern­ment to take seri­ous action and demon­strate to the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty that Aus­tralia is imple­ment­ing intel­li­gent, enlight­ened and equi­table strate­gies to com­bat cli­mate change by ensur­ing the imme­di­ate pro­tec­tion of Tasmania’s ancient forests” said Ms Majew­s­ki.

For­est defend­ers will con­tin­ue to take a stand against the destruc­tion of old growth forests locat­ed in the Styx, Weld and Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­leys.

Lis­ten to SWST vs Forestry Tas­ma­nia on ABC Radio http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/15/2138389.htm

MEDIA RELEASE

Thurs­day, 17th Jan­u­ary 2008

For­est activists con­tin­ue their protest in the Styx Val­ley, Tas­ma­nia

Ear­ly this after­noon, com­mu­ni­ty activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened con­duct­ed a peace­ful walk in to coupe SX10F to doc­u­ment and bear wit­ness to the ongo­ing destruc­tion of old growth forests locat­ed in the Styx Val­ley.

“Some of our most sig­nif­i­cant car­bon sinks are being destroyed at a dis­turbing­ly accel­er­at­ed rate, ren­der­ing Tasmania’s forestry prac­tices an inter­na­tion­al dis­grace. The Rudd gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to endorse the log­ging and burn­ing of ancient forests locat­ed in the Styx Val­ley. Pro­tect­ing Tasmania’s old growth forests is a sim­ple, cheap and intel­li­gent cli­mate change solu­tion” said Still Wild Still Threat­ened spokesper­son Ula Majew­s­ki.

“SX10F has gained an inter­na­tion­al pro­file over the past few years, becom­ing an icon­ic exam­ple of Tasmania’s glob­al­ly renowned forests. This irre­place­able ecosys­tem, locat­ed with­in 1.5km of the World Her­itage Bound­ary, is being ripped apart by bull­doz­ers and chain­saws to line the pock­ets of greedy wood­chip­pers Gunns Ltd.” said Ms Majew­s­ki.

For­est defend­ers will con­tin­ue to peace­ful­ly protest against the destruc­tion of old growth forests locat­ed in the Styx, Weld and Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­leys.