Hi!
This is a forwarded message!
Thanks!
Angela
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Hey guys, could you stick this on alerts/what you can do etc
please?
for the Earth - John (Seed)
From: Native Forest Action <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: A personal plea from Jen at Native Forest Action, NZ
Please feel free to circulate this to others who might be keen to help!
Thank you,
Jen
Native Forest Action
PO Box 836
Nelson
Aotearoa/NZ
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.converge.org.nz/nfa
THIS IS A PERSONAL PLEA ON BEHALF OF OUR BEECH FORESTS
A New Zealand Government-owned company, Timberlands West Coast Limited, have
recently released plans to begin a new logging operation involving 98,000
hectares of publicly-owned native forest on the West Coast of New Zealand's
South Island.
Timberlands, with the help of USA's second largest PR firm (Shandwicks),
have spent months trying to make the plans for this large-scale logging
palatable to the public. All gloss and frosted edges aside, what they are
planning is the felling of up to 250,000 trees per year in areas that are
the home of many of our threatened endemic species, such as the great
spotted kiwi, kaka (large native parrot), kakariki (parakeet), long-tailed
bat (one of the two bat species that are NZ's only endemic terrestrial
mammals) and several species of native fish.
These forests are ecologically rich lowland forests, of which there are
barely 14% left from what covered this country before the arrival of humans.
Half of that 14% has already been logged and is undergoing regeneration.
There is no economic, social, environmental or legal reason for logging
these remnants of Gondwana. Any logging in these forests poses a
significant risk to our global biodiversity and is contrary to our
government's commitment to the International Convention on Biodiversity.
The New Zealand Government have called for "public comment" on Timberlands'
logging plans and have given us only 4 weeks to do so. This is too short
for in depth scientific review or for the public to become well informed.
The process is not a thorough submission process (people are only being
asked to "comment") and "no logging" hasn't been offered as an option for
these forests. Needless to say, we will be strongly pushing for that !
Our plea is a desperate one. We ask you, as concerned inhabitants of this
wounded planet, to please help by submitting comments against this
environmental atrocity. The deadline is 4pm on November 6th. You can email
your submission to:
< [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
and you must include your name, address and phone number for your comment to
be counted. Please also send Native Forest Action a copy at:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your comment, from a global biodiversity perspective, would be invaluable.
It's not important how you say it, as long as you say something. Two
sentences is fine!
On behalf of the forests and all they support, thank you.
***************************************************************
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I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years
fighting auto dependence and road construction.)
http://www.imaja.com/change/environment/mvarticles
