Nexus - 0110 - New Times Magazine-pages

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he tropical timber industry is a -——— Unless we do something to stop this | machine of destruction fed by machine in its tracks it will not end until greed, poverty, and desperation the last tree has been felled, and the last and sitting firmly behind the steering forest cleared. For instance, due to the wheel is the capital of the developed timber industry on the Ivory Coast in world. The end of the line is in sight. | [! OIge als q Africa, there is only 5% tree cover left, For decades the industry has behaved as : and is still being eaten into. Within four if the forests are endless. But now the World Environment Day Rally years there will not be any forest cover AT largest remaining ancient forests of Asia ALL outside those national parks. are on our doorstep on the Island of New _L— June 5 1990 So why don’t we ban this timber? Guinea. These too are being plundered. : Why does the Australian government In West New Guinea, (Indonesian | people of PNG. This is hardly surprising, | continue to vacillate? Why don’t the state of Irian Jaya), the last complete | as oneof his findings was that the biggest | multi-nationals pull out? remnants of mangrove forests inAsiaare | timber crook of all was a former Minister Don’t they care that 50% of the being fed into the wood chipper of | ofForests,who,onhisappointment, gave | world’s species will become extinctin the Marubeni Corporation. To the south, the | himself one of the most valuable timber | next fifty years? What a stupid rhetorical Asmat people, are being forced by the | concessions in the country, from which | question! Ofcourse they don’t. Ifthey did Indonesian military, under slavery’ | hestoodtomakeover$7millioninillegal | they'd BANNOW and dig deep into their conditions, to log their own forests. | profits. That man is TED DIRO - just | pockets, as we all must do, and help these This occupying he has ee promoted to Deputy Prime Minister. countries through their problems NOW. 100,000 tribal people ts : : . Everyone talks, but in the last twenty J; no-one does much. years. West Papuans, | r A few people DO trying to resist the ay: care. Members of the alienation of their ¢ Rainforest Action lands, have been Groups in Australia displaced by World © care enough to risk Bank funded trans- * their lives in front of migrants, shot, raped; ' tropical timber ships. even napalmed and That is their level of strafed from the air commitment. If you by US supplied B52’s. wonder about this In East New Guinea, sort of protest, or if in Papua New Guinea, you are concerned Australian mining but want to leave it companies are presently “ to governments and destroying the country ” those already active, for minerals, killing all life in the rivers, very timber company working in | then I'd like you to consider this... how poisoning peoples drinking water. One New Guinea is breaking national | will we be able to answer the next and company alone, the BHP led consortium | laws; cheating the country, and | coming generation when it asks. of the Ok Tedi Mining Company, dumps | breaking whatever quite inadequate “You were the last generation able to over 70,000 tonnes of cyanide infected | environmental legislation there is.,| save the ancient tropical forests, the waste into the Ok Tediriver system daily! | Officers of the Department of Forests | source of all terrestrial life on this A recent Commission of inquiry into | have said to me that the "TIMBER | planet. WhatdidYOU do?” If we cannot the timber industry in Papua New Guinea | INDUSTRYIS OUTOF CONTROL". | say that wedideverything in ourpower to described the timber companies Let’s face it, the timber industry is out | overthrow the system that rapes and operating there as “robber barons”, | of control here and everywhere in the | destroys and now threatens our own destroying the forests, creating social | world...in the tropics, in the temperate | existence, then we will have failed in the disharmony and bribing politicians with | countries, developed and undeveloped! | eyesof history. Ifwedon’tsucceed fear that hardly any benefits at all. Since 1975 This is why the people of PNG, | therewon'tbeanyoneleftto wmite thathistory. only two timber companies in Papua | Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines | So go out and fight for a better world... New Guinea have ever shown a profit. | are now calling for a ban on logging. | embrace the Green Millennium... For his labours on the Commission | Eyen the Prime Minister of PNG, | one planet, one people, one chance. over the two years, the commissioner, | Rabbie Namaliu, has called on Judge Barnett, was stabbed within an | consuming countries tohalt the import by George Marshall inch of his life, and his findings have | of unsustainably produced timber. New-Guinea Islands Campaign been suppressed. Now, a year later, not | | Make no mistake about it, virtually PO Box 368 Lismore 2480 Australia one copy of his report is available to the | ALL tropical timber IS unsustainable. Ph. (066) 218-5050 - gn:gmarshall ADDRESS RALLY by George Marshall New Guinea Islands Campaign PO Box 368 Lismore 2480 Australia Ph. (066) 218-5050 - gn:gmarshall Nexus *10