Ta Ann is still selling Tasmanian forest destruction to customers in Japan

Protest today at 10am at Ta Ann head office Davey st Hobart

Campaigners from Japan and Australia join together this morning in a protest at Hobart head office of the Sarawak logging company, Ta Ann.

Akira Harada the Director of JATAN, the Japan Tropical Action Network, is visiting from Tokyo and will join campaigners from Huon Valley Environment Centre today.

Huon Valley Environment Centre’s Jenny Weber said, “Our protest is on the eve of Premier Lara Giddings trade mission to Japan with logging company Ta Ann, ‘environment’ groups and Forestry Tasmania, to sell Tasmania’s timber products. There are still ecological problems with the Tasmanian product, FSC certification is not a certainty and high conservation value forests are still being logged for Ta Ann’s wood supply”.

“Ta Ann have not ensured that they do not receive timber from the exempt coupes inside the proposed reserve landscapes, instead they are accepting wood Forestry Tasmania supplies from the contentious logging operations, such as logging in the Esperance. These forests are ending up in product sold to Japan.

The Tasmanian Forest Agreement (TFA) has not delivered an environmentally acceptable product in to the Japanese markets. Timber sourced by Ta Ann in Tasmania is still from old growth and high conservation value forests and ecologically destructive logging practices that are contributing to climate change.” Jenny Weber said.

JATAN Director Akira Harada states, “Japanese customers do not want to use high conservation value forests products and conflict timber. There are still forests in Tasmania being logged for Ta Ann that have high conservation values, we will visit one in the Esperance in the coming days.”

“Ta Ann’s Japanese customers cannot be given certainty of supply, with the new Federal Liberal government and the lack of bi-partisan support for the TFA, any assurances given now may well lead to timber purchases from forests with ongoing logging practices that provide environmentally unsustainable wood. Premier Giddings and her logging industry cohorts cannot provide assurances to international customers in this unpredictable political climate,” Jenny Weber said.

“We have a responsibility to ensure that false assurances are not given to the international markets who seek ‘environmentally friendly’ products, when the timber out of Tasmania to Japan fail to meet this test, and only tarnish the important ‘eco’ brand,” Jenny Weber said.
Jenny Weber Huon Valley Environment Centre www.huon.org www.nativeforest.net