Protests continue against Gunns proposed pulp mill in Tasmania

As this video recently posted on youtube shows…

Gunns Pulp Mill -Tasmanians protest against corrupt approval of world’s third biggest pulp mill in the beautiful Tamar Valley. 100,000 residents in Launceston and Tamar Valley will be affected by toxic emissions. Tourism and fisheries will be hurt by dioxins in the river and sea. Tasmania becomes Plantation Island, with toxic sprays affecting surrounding farms and waterways. The island’s clean green brand will be destroyed. Tasmanians need the world’s help denying a social licence needed to attract investment. Stop the mill and huge carbon emissions, heal the social division, save the island’s environment. http://www.tapvision.info/

Keep up to date on Gunns’ latest shenanigans on the excellent Tasmanian Times.

Environment groups welcome Gunns’ frank assessment on native forests

The long running saga of Gunns‘ proposed pulp mill continues. Yesterday, the company’s new chief executive, Greg L’Estrange, announced that Gunns would stop logging native forests:

“This may well mean transitioning to plantations. But move we must for the conflict must end for too many people have been financially and emotionally injured in the Australian forest wars.

The announcement that Gunns will stop logging native forests is good news, welcomed by the Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Tasmania (see press release, below). But this does not mean a stop to the plans for a new pulp mill. And a vast area of industrial tree plantations feeding a polluting pulp mill is not good news. In 2009, Gunns took over eight Great Southern plantation schemes in Victoria and South Australia after Great Southern went bust.

Nordea Backs Away From Gunns’ Pulp Mill

Well, that was quick…. Two days of email and tweets later, and Nordea is at least distancing itself from Gunns. But the statement that “Nordea has not made any decision or commitment to finance the project in Tasmania,” is not that same as “Nordea will not finance Gunns.” Still, good news that Nordea is at least looking nervous. Here’s a press release from the Wilderness Society and Avaaz:

Tell Nordea to say no to Gunns

Avaaz.org is running a campaign to urge Nordea Bank not to finance Gunns Pulp Mill in Tasmania. Please send an email via the Avaaz website – but please re-write the suggested email. Nordea should have nothing to do with Gunns. Suggesting that Nordea might fund a Gunns’ pulp mill that is 100% based on plantation timber is not a good idea…. Below the video (from the Avaaz website) is the email I sent to Nordea. While the Gunns project staggers from one controversy to another, as the Wilderness Society points out “we’re not out of the woods yet“.

Gunns pulp mill: high risk investment?

Tomorrow, 29 April 2009, the Wilderness Society will run this full-page advertisement in the Financial Times. The Wilderness Society has released a list of the banks which have committed not to finance Gunns’ proposed pulp mill in Tasmania. The following four banks have not yet ruled out financing the pulp mill and are named in the advertisement:

Nordea
Barclays Bank
Macquarie
JP Morgan Chase

 

New Japanese paper scandal

Press release from the Wilderness Society:

MEDIA RELEASE 12 December 2008

NEW JAPANESE PAPER SCANDAL: First it was misleading about recycled content, now old growth forest destruction claims are under scrutiny

Gunns pulp mill “almost certainly dead”

Paul Lennon has resigned as Premier of Tasmania. The key political supporter of the Gunns pulp mill project is no longer in office. The Tasmanian Times describes the project as “the most glaring example of Paul Lennon’s contempt for proper governance and indifference to democratic process”.

ANZ pulls out of financing Gunns’ proposed pulp mill

Press Release 29th May 2008

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS WELCOME ANZ DECISION NOT TO FINANCE GUNNS’ PROPOSED PULP MILL

Other banks also urged to abstain from a project that spells disaster for Tasmanian forests and poses huge reputational risk

Nijmegen, the Netherlands and Tasmania, Australia May, 27 2008

The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) and BankTrack welcome the decision of ANZ not to provide funding to Gunns Ltd. for its controversial Tasmanian pulp mill project.

Citigroup say sell high risk Gunns, others agree

Press release from Wilderness Society (1 March 2008):

Leading international investment firm recommends investors sells Gunns shares, others such as JP Morgan agree

A major investment group has labeled Gunns as high risk and recommended investors sell Gunns shares due to blowouts in cost and timing for the pulp mill project and the rising Australian dollar. Considering the Citigroup report, The Wilderness Society is calling on Gunns banker the ANZ to reconsider its position on the project and refuse involvement before investors, shareholders and customers savings are damaged by financing the highly risky pulp mill.

Subsidising Gunns’ destruction

By Chris Lang (January 2008):

A recent article by Barnaby Drake in the World Rainforest Movement Bulletin outlines some of the subsidies that Gunns receives from the government.

One of these comes in the form of Managed Investment Services Companies. These companies invest in monoculture tree plantations and the government grants them tax-free status – on the grounds that the plantations are a carbon sink and carbon credits can be traded against continuing pollution. Apart from the sheer impossibility of proving that plantations are actually sinks (see, for example, Carbon Offsets and the Ghost of Frank Knight, in the Cornerhouse’s 2006 report “Carbon Trading“, page 160), the plantations will be cut down, chipped, converted to pulp, exported to Japan, China or wherever and converted to paper. Producing paper consumes huge amounts of energy. Globally, the pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy. Most paper ends up ultimately in landfills where it decomposes and produces methane – a far stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.