Protest halts logging in upper Florentine Valley-Monday 13 October 2008 & campaign update newsletter

MEDIA RELEASE
Mon­day, 13th Octo­ber 2008
Tas­man­ian for­est defend­ers take a stand against cli­mate crimes in the Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­ley

This morn­ing, for­est activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened con­duct­ed a peace­ful action in the Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­ley, halt­ing log­ging oper­a­tions in coupe FO42E. A for­est defend­er is perched high on a tree-sit to protest against the con­tin­ued dec­i­ma­tion of Tas­ma­ni­a’s car­bon dense old growth forests.

“We are speak­ing out against the cli­mate crimes which con­tin­ue to be per­pet­u­at­ed by Forestry Tas­ma­nia and Gunns Lim­it­ed, and are call­ing on Kevin Rudd to take imme­di­ate action and put a stop to the ram­pant wood-chip­ping of some of our most sig­nif­i­cant car­bon sinks” said Still Wild Still Threat­ened spokesper­son Chris­to Mills.

“A recent ANU study has clear­ly shown that Tas­ma­ni­a’s ancient forests can play a key role in com­bat­ing dan­ger­ous cli­mate change. [1]However, these glob­al­ly renowned forests con­tin­ue to be sub­ject­ed to destruc­tive road­ing, log­ging and burn­ing oper­a­tions” said Mr Mills.

“The car­bon rich forests of the Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­ley are being sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly destroyed to feed the rapa­cious appetite of an envi­ron­men­tal­ly unsus­tain­able wood-chip­ping industry.The dev­as­ta­tion of these car­bon rich forests is an inter­na­tion­al dis­grace and for­est defend­ers will con­tin­ue to take peace­ful action against these rep­re­hen­si­ble cli­mate crimes” said Mr Mills.

“Pro­tect­ing Tas­ma­ni­a’s ancient forests is a sim­ple and high­ly effec­tive cli­mate change solu­tion” said Mr Mills.

For com­ment, con­tact: Chris­to Mills 0447 631 735

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The lat­est cam­paign update newslet­ter, Spring 2008 — upcom­ing dates (Note: South­ern hemi­sphere spring is our North­ern autumn) — not that you’d think of fly­ing there in any case, boys & girls 😉