Update
October 18, 2000 - The Buller Overcut has ended!
The West Coast is to recieve $120 million compensation for the cessation
of native logging AS WELL AS CONTINUED RIMU LOGGING for two years??
Click
here to see Okarito photos
On 15 May 2000 the government
announced it is going to stop the logging of all publicly owned native
forests by the end of March 2002. While we wish they had stopped
all the logging immediately, this is still a mighty big win for conservation...
Click
Here to Read More Click here
to read Wildlife
values & wildlife conservation in South Westland.
Secrets
and Lies: The Anatomy of an Anti-Environmental PR Campaign.
By Nicky Hager
This is an important book
'Secrets and Lies' is perhaps world's most comprehensive dissection
of an anti-environmental public relations campaign based on many hundreds
of pages of leaked confidential public relations files. Click here
to read more...
Timberlands'
so-called "sustainable" beech logging
management plans have crumbled under independent
scientific scrutiny. A recently released Landcare report
shows major flaws in Timberlands' claims to
"sustainable logging"...
read on
Or download interactive model - 315K self-extracting file for PCs
Non-violent protest vindicated!
Eight NFA activists were found not-guilty of intimidation
charges resulting from a logging road blockade earlier in
the year. Five other people charged with trespass were
fund guilty but discharged without conviction. The
peaceful nature of the protests was noted by the judge
and the right of all New Zealanders to legitimate protest
was upheld. Click here to read
more.
Acclaimed
NZ author Mandy Hager has published an adventure book
about a group of young people who stage a forest
occupation on the West Coast in order to save the forest
from evil logging company 'Ecolands'
You can buy your copy here
Unbelievable
photos of rimu skid-site in Charleston Forest taken on a
recent reconnaissance mission into the logging area.
Click Here
Campaign
map of all the native forests targeted by Timberlands
West Coast
Click
Here
Two Thai monks visit
New Zealand and lend their support to the Native Forest
Action campaign
Click Here
Even though
there were 10,298 public submissions opposing the
government's beech management plans and only 2,038 in
support, their decision has been to approve the plans!
Click here
to read the analysis.
Timberlands
Bird & Bat survey leaked to NFA - Click Here to read it.
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LOGGING ACTIONS OF THE NEW
ZEALAND GOVERNMENT ON THE WEST COAST - IN TERMS OF THE
CONVENTION ON BIODIVERSITY
Click
Here
Read more
on 'sustainability'
NFA Policy Document: Conservation and Regional
Development
The
Recycled Rimu Scam
Bought any furniture lately? Something in rimu perhaps?
Did they tell you the wood was "recycled", or
had been logged using "sustainable" techniques?
We've got some bad news.
Click here to read more
Conservation
week actions..

4/8/98
|
We now have a secure-server for safe credit card
transactions
- NFA
activists appeared in Court - Tuesday, 21 March click
here
for photos
and details.
-
Revealing photos of Timberlands' rimu logging
published on the Internet See: www.nfa.org.nz/orikaka Native
Forest Action activists were chased through dense
bush in Orikaka Forest as they attempted to get
photos of the Timberlands rimu logging operation....
click here
Felled
Rimu in Orikaka Forest

Havoc
in the Forests!
click here

-
UPDATE -
Things
have changed! Since the election in November
1999 when the Labour/Alliance coalition took over
government there has been significant changes in the
native logging situation. The Labour party policy
before the election was to stop native logging on
public land but to honour any native
timber supply contracts signed before
the policy announcement. Of course Timberlands
immediately piped up and gleefully announced that
they had just secured 7 years worth of rimu supply
contracts. The Labour party were obliged to concede
that these contracts would have to be honoured.
Timberlands then announced that they also had eight
years worth of beech supply contracts! These
turned out to be a sham because they were signed
before the resource consents were given. They were
thrown out. The beech scheme was axed and the Labour
party's first act of parliament was to change
Timberlands' statement of corporate intent to not
include any beech logging. This is a
significant victory! and needless to say,
Native Forest Action will be watching very closely to
make sure there is no evidence of continued beech
logging.

Peter
Russell next to the first giant rimu felled this
millennium by Timberlands in Orikaka forest.
The next development
was that the Green party came forward with evidence
that the rimu supply contracts were also
contestable. They have shown that within the
contracts there is a clause that says the contracts
are not enforceable if there is a
change in government, and furthermore, there is
evidence that the contracts were not signed in August
1999 as Timberlands claim but in fact were signed in
September only days before the policy announcement!
There is no
reason why the government can't put an end to the
rimu logging as well. At this stage rimu
logging in the Buller overcut continues apace. Native
Forest Action will be pushing for an end to this
ASAP! You can help by writing to the Labour party.
Helen Clark, Pete Hodgson, and Marion Hobbs are the
people to speak to.
Timberlands is to be
'wound up' and its assets placed in a Trust under
West Coast control as part of the regional
development package given tot he West Coast region as
compensation for the end of native logging.
Court
Both activists were
found guilty and discharged without conviction.
Bridgett
Gibb locked on beneath the giant logging helicopter

Steve
Abel locked by the neck to the rotors of the helicopter

Most New Zealanders cannot
believe that our native forest are being logged. But
sadly they are. A small state-owned-enterprise called
Timberlands West Coast is being
allowed to plunder priceless rimu and beech forests
all over the West Coast of New Zealand's South
Island. Timberlands is currently pushing more logging
roads through Okarito forest.
Native Forest Action is
committed to halting this outrageous destruction
primarily by campaigning to stop logging of
publicly-owned native forests by the SOE Timberlands
West Coast Ltd since 1995 (including the
"overcut" in the Buller, the massive
proposed beech scheme, and the so-called
"sustainable" logging of the Saltwater and
Okarito rimu forests).
This website is intended to
enable the sharing of information, to create interest
and awareness, and to gain support for the fight
against native logging. There are NFA groups in many
cities around NZ. If you want to join NFA, or give us
a hand, or just get more information, you are welcome
to contact your nearest NFA group.

The Issues ..
The forests at stake are very
worth saving. They include the tall rimu forests on
the shore of Okarito Lagoon, magnificent natural
Beech forests that are home to many endangered birds
in north Westland and the rich forests near the
northern end of Paparoa National Park.
Ten years ago hundreds of West
Coast people relied on native logging for jobs. Today
there is only one native sawmill and it is ready to
convert to pines. Very few jobs would be lost on the
Coast if native logging was discontinued today. In
fact Timberlands sends much of the West Coast Pine to
other regions to be milled... Read
More
Until recently Timberlands
claimed is was required to log these forests
under the West Coast accord. An appeal court decision
in June this year found this to be untrue. Similarly,
in 1995, a High Court case found that there is no
obligation on the government to allow the kind of beech
logging scheme. (Now canned)
Timberlands pays the crown
only $10-$15 on average for each centuries-old tree
it logs. It then sells them to the sawmill for
$400-$1500 (depending on the quality). That is why
Timberlands doesn't want to stop. It is receiving a
massive subsidy from the state through undervaluing
the forests. These profits fund exorbitant salaries
(the CEO, with under 50 staff, is paid the same as
the Prime minister!), an unlimited PR budget and
uncontrolled overheads. In seven years the SOE has
not paid a cent of dividend to the state. Apart from
priceless ecological value, the unique forests of the
West Coast (temperate rainforests) are worth far more
to New Zealand through tourism than as timber. The
clean green image that New Zealand is so fond of, and
that is so valuable to us, is fallacious in light of
our continued destruction of our own native forests.
But isn't
the logging done in a sustainable
way?
Only if you believe
Timberlands propaganda!! The concept of sustainable,
in terms of a forest's well-being, refers to
ecological sustainability - the extent to which the
forest will retain its ecological integrity and
biodiversity. Timberlands have neatly redefined the
term to refer to economic sustainability -
the extent to which they can log the forest without
destroying its potential to be logged in the future.
It is a fraud. Felling and removing 10 000's of
centuries old forest giants dramatically alters the
ecology of the area. In terms of plant and birdlife
the effects are far-reaching and non-reversible.
Planting a rimu seedling in place of a 700 year old
tree is ... well, pathetic?
Furthermore, what Timberlands
tries to hide is that the SOE is shortly going to be
privatised. From that day, the private manager of our
public native forests would be allowed (under the
Forests Act) to clearfell football filed sized areas
throughout the beech forests, up to one thousand
hectares each year. Our precious natural rainforests
would progressively become private plantations - a
natural heritage lost forever.
They also claim that they will
spend money to help protect wildlife from introduced
predators to compensate for the effects of logging
these birds' and animals' forests. This is as crazy
as a government offering to allocate extra money for
fisheries research to compensate for legalising
drift-net fishing. Money is needed to protect
wildlife, but it is no justification for wrecking the
wildlife's habitat.

|
|
Get
Your Free Anti-Logging Poster Here!

Webmasters |
Join the 'Stop
Native Logging' Campaign 
Click here to put this button
on your website
------------------
|
NFA
National Contact Details:
Nick Young, National
Co-ordinator, Native Forest Action, P O Box 836, Nelson.
Phone 03 545-6040
Email
West Coast:
Pete: 03 789 8734
Email
Christchurch:
Jon Email

Native
Forest Action is a proud member of Native
Forest Network
|