Action Alert to Protect Old Growth Forests of Tasmania

This is Ruth from the Rainforest Information Centre in Australia. We are hoping you might have a moment to help us to protect the forests of Tasmania. for the Earth, Ruth and John. http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/

Take Action to Protect Old Growth Forests of Tasmania from Rainforest Information Centre (Australia) and Friends of the Earth Australia

Please help us to urge Nippon and Oji Paper companies in Japan to follow Mitsubishi's lead and halt the purchase of woodchips sourced from old growth forests of Tasmania. Below is a sample letter you can email to: info@ojipaper.co.jp (Oji Paper) and to env@npaper.co.jp (Nippon Paper Industries)

You can also access this action alert directly at: http://www.greenpeace.or.jp/cyberaction/tasmania/form_en_html

You can also send a letter to Prime Minister John Howard by clicking http://forests.org/action/alert.asp?id=australia.

For background info on Nippon's purchase of woodchips see http://chrislang.blogspot.com/2005_07_12_chrislang_archive.html


info@ojipaper.co.jp, env@npaper.co.jp

To: Mr. SUZUKI, Shoichiro, CEO, Oji Paper Co.Ltd., Tokyo Japan Mr. MIYOSHI, Takahiko, President, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Tokyo Japan

July 22, 2005

Dear Sirs,

As you are aware, Mitsubishi Paper Mills has announced that it will stop using woodchips sourced from old growth forests. Their new policy is to buy only woodchips "sourced from plantations or second growth forests of environmentally benign, and reclaimed wood."

While the Australian Government recently agreed to protect some of the world's tallest hardwoods and old-growth forests of Tasmania, old growth logging in the state has not been phased out yet and will continue at the rate of 2600 hectares per year. Precious old-growth forests are still severely under threat and will be eradicated before too long unless strong decisive action is taken. These ancient forests are the womb of life and are required to maintain both local and global ecological stability.

We are writing to you to ask you to take a lead as Mitsubishi has done and please help us save these precious areas for Tasmania and the rest of the world.

We strongly urge you to implement a policy to ensure that your company does not buy any woodchips from Gunns sourced from old growth forests.

I look forward to your reply concerning this matter.

Yours Sincerely,

NAME ADDRESS


From EF! Media Center

Urwaldschutz­gesetz gefordert: Umweltschützer kämpfen um Urwaldschutz in Indonesien (03.08.05)

Das indonesische Forstministerium überprüft zur Zeit, ob bei der Vergabe von Konzessio­nen zur Umwandlung von Regenwald in Plantagen auf Sumatra Gesetze zum Schutz des Waldes missachtet worden sind. Die Umweltschutzorganisation "Robin Wood" unterstützt die Forderung indonesischer Umweltorganisationen nach einem Moratorium für den Kahlschlag und fordert den deut­schen Handel auf, auf Holzprodukte aus Indonesien zu verzichten, bis dort dem Raubbau am Regenwald Einhalt geboten worden ist. Außerdem hält Robin Wood es für dringend erfor­derlich, dass nach den Neuwahlen in Deutschland rasch das geplante Urwaldschutz­gesetz verabschiedet wird.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=11548

California: Nurturing giant sequoias

San Francisco Chronicle

07/31/05

Here, in the bastion of the largest trees on Earth, it's easy to understand the meaning of the word 'insignificant': You simply stand at the base of a mature giant sequoia. It is an experience that is simultaneously humbling and transcendent. Wildland managers understand the effect these great trees exert, and agree they must be protected -- but sharply contested differences have emerged about the best way to accomplish that goal. There are about 38,000 acres of giant sequoias, distributed in scattered groves along the western slope of the Sierra. Though not as tall as their cousins, the coast redwoods, giant sequoias are much more massive, sometimes attaining trunk diameters of 30 feet...

http://tinyurl.com/d6alg


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

September 2-5th, 2005 Eco - Defense Rendezvous

Camp with us along the Wenatchee River!

Rainforest Action Network - Greenpeace - Earth First!

Join us in a forest east of the Cascades for labor day weekend! Bring all your musician friends for some wild sounds around the campfire. There will also be many workshops and trainings: tree-climbing, self-defense, edible and herbal plant walks, gorilla theater, radical cheerleading, map and compass, timber monitoring, non-violence, gender dynamics and much more. (Note: if you attend these workshops you’ll be considered trained and ready to work on Greenpeace, RAN, EF! campaigns.)

About the forest: Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington State approved a plan to log 2,500 acres of federal lands that were burned by the Fischer Fire in August of 2004. The plan calls for logging in old-growth forest reserves, and for building or re-building over 15 miles of road. So lawsuits have been filed and loggers are logging as fast as possible to ensure the courts have no control over the hauling of 4,000 log trucks of fire adapted forests. It's called an "Economic Emergency." Details about the lawsuit http://www.cascwild.org/Post_fire/Fischer/

For Directions to the Rendezvous site, or for more info: http://www.olyecologycenter.org mailto:olyef@cascadiarising.org http://www.ran.org/ http://www.greenpeace.org

Reyna Mojica saw her two boys shot to death just weeks ago, an attack she traces to a vendetta she says began in 1998 when her family helped block hundreds of logging trucks in Mexico's Sierra Madre. They call themselves the Peasant Ecologists of the Petatlan Sierra and their fight to save a swath of forest near the Pacific coast is among the world's most important struggles against deforestation.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/072505EC.shtml

http://tribes.tribe.net/forest_defenders?r=10535


Informant: Scott Munson

From: http://Forests.org Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 1:05 PM Subject: FORESTS ALERT: End Old-Growth Woodchip Market in Tasmania and the World


ACTION ALERT
FORWARD WIDELY!

End Old-Growth Woodchip Market in Tasmania and the World

By Forests.org, a project of Ecological Internet, Inc. July 9, 2005

TAKE ACTION Tell Nippon Paper Group to Stop Buying Old-Growth Comment Form: http://www.np-g.com/e/csr/ideology/materials_form.html
Background: http://www.np-g.com/e/news/news05061701.html

Japanese company Nippon Paper Group is following the lead of a key rival by reviewing its policy for purchasing woodchips from old growth forests. Nippon is the latest customer of Tasmanian exporter Gunns Ltd to consider new policies after Mitsubishi Paper Mill moved to reject woodchips derived from Tasmania, Australia's old growth and high-conservation value forests late last month. The Earth's forest conservation movement has a unique opportunity to follow up upon our recent victory in Tasmania - taking the next step to transition the paper industry to a No Old-Growth stance. Nippon is carrying out a public consultation on their raw materials policy which would provide the opportunity it needs to follow the lead of Mitsubishi and dump Tasmanian old growth woodchips. Comments are being taken only through a form on their web site, where they ask for the "Main Point" and "Reason or Background" in regard to their raw materials procurement policy. Below are suggestions for the basic message we should be trying to communicate, which you can copy and paste, but please add your own language if possible.

Provide comments before July 19th on Behalf of Tasmanian Old-Growth at: http://www.np-g.com/e/csr/ideology/materials_form.html

Main Point: I am very upset that Nippon is still buying woodchips sourced from the old growth forests of Tasmania. Nippon should immediately stop buying woodchips sourced from all old growth and other high conservation value forests. To keep up with your competitor Mitsubishi, you must adopt a no old-growth forests use policy.

Reason or Background A broad global consensus has emerged that industrial logging of old-growth, and other endangered forests, is antiquated and no longer acceptable. Ancient forests are required to maintain local as well as global ecological sustainability. Industrial development of Tasmanian and other endangered forests irrevocably diminishes them. To protect the Earth and all her life, the world's remaining old-growth must be protected from commercial scale development. World Heritage-class Tasmanian and other old-growth forests should not be fodder for woodchips. Businesses that fail to heed this message will feel the pain of market rejection.

More alerts at http://forests.org/action/


Networked by Forests.org, a project of Ecological Internet, Inc. http://forests.org/ gbarry@forests.org


Informant: Scott Munson

http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0508-eia.html


Informant: Andy Robinson

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=47904


Informant: Andy Robinson