Groundswell shuts down Ta Ann veneer mill (Tasmania)

 Grass­roots envi­ron­men­tal group Groundswell have today shut down oper­a­tions at Ta Ann’s veneer mill in Smith­ton, with a peace­ful protest. The group are high­light­ing the ongo­ing loss of Tasmania’s forests by Ta Ann, 2 pro­test­ers are locked onto a con­vey­or belt inside the mill, com­plete­ly shut­ting down oper­a­tions. A num­ber of oth­er mem­bers of the group are present and hold­ing a ban­ner in front of the mill, which reads; “TA ANN – SELLING TASMANIAN FOREST DESTRUCTION”.  Ta Ann is a Malaysian-based tim­ber com­pa­ny that has been accused of human rights vio­la­tions and con­tin­ues to destroy pris­tine rain­for­est in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Ta Ann has had log­ging con­tracts in Tas­ma­nia from 2006 and is the dri­ving force behind the ongo­ing log­ging of old growth forests.  

“Today’s protest is being held at the Ta Ann Smith­ton mill to oppose the ongo­ing dev­as­ta­tion of Tasmania’s native forests just for the sake of a quick prof­it.” Groundswell spokesper­son Dr Lisa Sear­le said.

“As the for­est peace talks have car­ried on over the last 3 years, the destruc­tion of Tasmania’s native forests has con­tin­ued. The talks have so far failed to deliv­er any form of per­ma­nent pro­tec­tion and the future of these ecosys­tems hangs in the bal­ance. .” Dr Sear­le con­tin­ued.  

“There is cur­rent­ly a very lim­it­ed mar­ket for Tas­man­ian wood­chips, and Ta Ann is dri­ving the con­tin­u­ing destruc­tion of huge tracts of for­est. These forests are being clear-felled just to remove a few select logs for Ta Ann while low-grade sawlogs and wood­chip-grade logs are being left behind to rot in these dec­i­mat­ed areas.” Said Dr Sear­le.

The pro­test­ers will stay in place locked onto machin­ery until they are removed and Groundswell will con­tin­ue stand­ing up for the pro­tec­tion of our wild nat­ur­al state.

*Update: ENVIRONNMENTAL activists have been removed from a con­vey­or belt at the Ta Ann veneer mill in Smith­ton.

Tas­ma­nia Police offi­cers were called to the site ear­li­er today after two pro­test­ers from green group Groundswell chained them­selves to machin­ery inside the tim­ber pro­cess­ing plant. Sev­er­al oth­er activists gath­ered out­side the mill.

Groundswell said the “peace­ful protest” was aimed at high­light­ing the ongo­ing loss of Tas­man­ian forests to pro­vide the tim­ber used in the mill.

Ta Ann Tas­ma­nia said it was dis­ap­point­ed the group was ille­gal­ly protest­ing at its Smith­ton mill today.

“Ta Ann Tas­ma­nia also wish­es to point out that it is not a log­ger, as false­ly claimed, but a “tim­ber proces­sor”,” a com­pa­ny spokesper­son said.

Tas­ma­nia Police issued a short state­ment at 12.25pm, say­ing the Ta Ann demon­stra­tion had been cleared