CUJ: Stop clear-cutting Tasmania's forests

Consumers Union of Japan and other groups here are concerned about the clear-cutting of old growth forest in Tasmania, Australia. This fall, a group of activists went there and met with Green Party representatives Bob Brown and Christina Milne.

Yasuaki Yamaura has written a report about his impressions from the trip. He notes that most Japanese consumers have no way of knowing where their tissue paper and office paper comes from. Australian Wilderness Society in Tasmania is a NGO with a great website, do have a look.

Do read his report, What is happening to Tasmanian Forests?

My five cents?

The road from this:

To this:

is paved with the best intentions.

More about Tasmania's amazing biodiversity here.

Update: On November 22, Australia's Federal Court dismissed the appeal against Gunn's $1.7 billion pulp mill in Tasmania. Activists vow to keep on fighting, as the Wilderness Society issued a call for law reform in response to the dismissal of its challenge to the assessment process for the controversial Tamar Valley pulp mill.

Meanwhile, after the election, former Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett, a long-standing environmental campaigner, was given a government post with responsibility for water. Climate change went to Malaysia-born Penny Wong, who becomes the country’s first Chinese-Australian cabinet minister. Australia will be very interesting to watch from now on - the new government has just announced that it will act on the Kyoto Protocol.

But, politics being what it is, Peter Garrett has actually said he is not against the Gunns' paper mill. He is a "team player"... The Green Party's Bob Brown, of course, has criticized Garrett for such views. For consumers in Japan, all of this will be very important: where does the paper we use every day come from?