Members of forest conservation group Code Green held a direct action protest at a woodchip mill at Bell Bay in northern Tasmania on July 29. The protest temporarily shut down the mill, which is owned by logging company Artec.
One protester chained herself to a truck loaded with native, old growth logs.
Code Green said the action was meant to highlight “the continued destruction of Tasmania’s natural environment, and the government’s unwillingness to create real peace in the forest”.
Code Green spokesperson Joanna Pinkiewicz said: “Artec are undermining the forest principles by chipping our native forests and selling them to China. They are the only company in the state that is chipping native old growth trees.
“We will continue our protests so long as these forests remain unprotected.”
The protesters drew attention to the failure of the forest principles agreement to adequately protect Tasmania’s forests. The federal and state governments reached the agreement together with industry groups in July.
Jenny Weber from the Huon Valley Environment Centre said: “After Gillard’s visit to [Tasmania], announcing the $276 million [forest industry] package, we still have no guarantee of formal protection for any native forests.”
The Code Green protest had the support from Still Wild Still Threatened, another pro-forest activist group that campaigns to save Tasmania’s southern forests.
The group’s Miranda Gibson said: “This action is calling for an end to these industrial logging practices that are destroying our unique ecosystems, polluting our drinking water, and ravaging our landscape.”