BY KAMALA EMANUEL

LAUNCESTON — One hundred people attended a demonstration against the Gunns woodchip company's forestry practices at its annual general meeting on October 31. One banner read “People don't kill forests — Gunns kill forests”.

Geoff Law from The Wilderness Society, the organisers of the protest, explained that the community had had enough of the Gunns' record wood-chipping. Gunns is currently responsible for exporting more woodchips from Tasmanian forests than are exported from the rest of Australia. Law also condemned the use of 1080 poison, clear-felling of old-growth forests, and logging on steep slopes that would be protected in other states.

Denouncing the alleged illegal logging carried out by Gunns in an area south of Hobart, Law hailed the decision by Kingborough Council to initiate prosecution of the company.

Other speakers explained they were investors in Gunns and would be trying to shift the company's direction. One spoke of the “axis of greed” — Gunns, the Tasmanian government and Forestry Tasmania.

A letter of support for the protest from Peg Putt, on behalf of Greens MPs, was read out.

From Green Left Weekly, November 6, 2002.
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