WALK AGAINST WOODCHIPS

Welcome to Walk Against Woodchips (WAW), an initiative of the National Anti-Woodchipping Campaign

BACKGROUND

Concerned Australians have come together to create an event exposing the tragedy of woodchipping. WAW aims to reinforce to Governments andcorporations that the continued clearing of our native forests for woodchips is totally unacceptable to the public majority.

Woodchipping fails both the community and the environment. It is highly mechanised, provides minimal employment, returns low royalties (as low as 9c/tonne!), receives massive subsidies and is by far the lowest value added means to process trees. Whole native forests are clearfelled to feed the insatiable appetites of chipmills and pulp markets: widespread environmental devastation results. The quality of life for every Australian is violated by this regime.

Federal/ State governments and industry plan to "intensively manage" (convert) more diverse native forests into single species tree farms, geared towards future woodchip markets. Furthermore, Regional Forest Agreements signed over the last two years guarantee unlimited woodchip supplies to corporations for the next 20 years! Current trends in Australia's political climate spell escalating disaster for our forests.

WHAT IS WAW?

WAW is a national concept for a series of walks (from 2 to 7 days) on regional levels across Australia. It gives communities a peaceful but powerful avenue to say, "enough is enough" to the job losses, water pollution, decay of the natural environment and so on, associated with woodchipping.

Each participating region will organise its own walk, culminating in most cases at its regional woodchip mill. WAW encourages involvement from a diverse range of groups and individuals in local communities. Walks will pass through both degraded and healthy forests as well as urban centres, attracting public and media interest. Standardised t-shirts and caps will be distributed nationally for registered walkers.

Walks for East Gippsland, South-East NSW and NSW Southern region are set for the first week October 1999 (school holidays). They will jointly end at Eden's Daishowa chip mill. A Tasmanian walk is planned for January 2000. Other regions expressing interest have yet to finalise dates.

OBJECTIVES:

Walk Against Woodchips is endorsed by the National Forest Summit and the Boycott Woodchipping Campaign

FOR FURTHER DETAILS or REGISTRATION: PHONE Margaret 02 9489 0353


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