Australian Residents Bring Logging to a Stand Still
12/13/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Residents bring logging to a stand still
Source: Otways Ranges Environment Network,
OREN propaganda
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 13, 1999
Otways residents and environmentalists shut down all eight logging
operations in the Otways forests this morning. A range of actions were
undertaken to prevent logging taking place, from picnics in logging
areas to the erection of tree platforms high in the forest canopy.
In its present form the West Victorian Regional Forests Agreement
(RFA) is totally discredited and unwanted by the majority of towns and
communities in the Otway and Surfcoast region. These communities want
to see an end to the clearfell logging and woodchipping of their
forests.
The Otway forests provide domestic drinking water to over 250,000
people in Western Victoria, yet half of the logging in the Otways
occurs in the catchments supplying this drinking water.
The economic future of the Otway/Surfcoast region is dependent on a
growing tourist industry worth over $300 million to the region
annually. This industry depends on the maintenance of the natural
values of the region including the forests now under threat from
logging and woodchipping. The future of the Otway forests is due to be
decided by the RFA to be signed by the State and Commonwealth in March
2000.
call 03 5237 7439 for more information