* I can imagine there will be a lot of cross posting here... sorry... this
is very important.
For anyone fighting for a more progressive, just society I urge you to
support this now because its absolute crunch time.
On the 31st of March this year, the fate of the forests of western Victoria
will be sealed by the Commonwealth and Victorian governments as part of a
Regional Forest Agreement (RFA).
These forests, including those of the Otways along Victoria's
surfcoast west of Torquay, and the Daylesford/Hepburn Springs area, contain
forests of remarkable beauty and ecological significance. They include
habitat for endangered species, old growth forests containing Mountain Ash
- one of the tallest flowering plants in the world - and rainforests. The
areas being cleared also include water catchments which
provide over 250,000 people in western Victoria with their domestic
drinking water needs. The Greater Geelong City Council, Surf Coast Shire
and Apollo Bay Chamber of Commerce are all opposed to continued logging
in domestic water supply catchments, because of the threats to water
quantity and quality.
The Western RFA will hand over these forests to major woodchipping
corporations in 20 year licenses, who then trash the forest and export
the woodchips to Japan, who turn it into toilet, photocopy and wrapping
paper.
As part of the public campaign to stop Bracks' RFA woodchip disaster, we
have organised two events
1.
When: Fri 3rd March, 9am
Where: Melbourne Town Hall
Bring banners (ones that identify organisations, clubs etc. are great),
noisemakers, friends, family etc.!
2. "Picnic for Water" - includes bands, entertainment and a celebrity
MC.
When: Sat 4th March, 12pm
Where: Moorpanyal Park, Geelong (The Esplanade, North Shore. Melways
ref. 226 E2)
BYO food and all of the aforementioned.
Our forests are extremely precious and deserve immediate protection. For
more details about our forests, RFAs and the timber industry visit
www.oren.org.au or www.geco.org.au.
Call myself on the below numbers for details or Gavan 0414 754 023.
--
Fiona Thiessen
Environment Officer
MSA Union Building
Monash University 3800
ph. 9905 5710
mobile 0427 033 321
fax 9905 4185
LL.VC
--
Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html
Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop
Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink
Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
