Watchdog has been following for several years now the struggle of Coromandel people against the proposal by Malaysian forestry transnational corporation (TNC), Ernslaw One, to build a sawmill on the beautiful Whangapoua Harbour. In June 2004, the proposal was given the go ahead by Environment Waikato and the Thames Coromandel District Council. They had received 308 written submissions against the proposal and 28 in favour. Paul Bibby, spokesperson for the Whangapoua Environmental Protection Society (WEPS), said: "With all the evidence given at the hearing I couldn’t see any way at all that they would actually pass it and let it go ahead…I would be very surprised if we didn’t appeal it {to the Environment Court}" (New Zealand Herald, 9/6/04; "Mill go ahead appals beach locals", Ainsley Thomson).

WEPS is not just fighting Ernslaw One and its subsidiary, Blue Mountain Lumber, on local environmental grounds. As stated in WEPS’ July 2004 online newsletter: "Although Blue Mountain Lumber try to disassociate themselves from their parent company, they are a subsidiary of Ernslaw One, owned by the Tiong family of Malaysia, who control the global conglomerate of companies, the notorious Rimbunan Hijau Group. Illegal access to forest resources, environmental damage and human rights abuses are repeated examples of Rimbunan Hijau’s logging activities…".

CAFCA fully supports WEPS and we urge our members to help them. They are a very resourceful bunch (a recent garden party raised $16,000) but they’re fighting a company which is spending anything up to $1 million on the legal process. They need all the help they can get: You can send donations to: