SEFE should close now. Enough is enough, Nippon Paper!

 

Forest campaigners have challenged Nippon Paper and the Eden chipmill to call an immediate halt to native forest logging and come clean about their future plans.

Convener of the Chipstop Campaign, Ms Harriett Swift is calling on the resident Nippon Paper Director, Mr Yuji Naruse to close the chipmill now, rather than waiting until the end of the year and force the forests to endure 7 more months of destruction.

“South East Fibre Exports has being subsidised by Nippon Paper for the past 3 years and the parent company has clearly run out of patience. It seems obvious that this is behind the decision to end the wood supply contract with VicForests at the end of 2014.” http://www.vicforests.com.au/files/vcmutgtwcj/Changes-to-supply-to-South-East-Fibre-Exports-%28May--14%29.pdf

Ms Swift said that unless logging stops now, immense damage to the forests and the wildlife will be done over the next 7 months and it should not happen.

“Why do more wombats have to be buried alive in their burrows by bulldozers on logging sites? Why do dozens more owls, gliders and other forest dwellers have to die, just to keep the chipmill running at a loss until the end of the year, producing low grade, expensive woodchips that nobody wants to buy?

“Closing the chipmill now would avoid so much of suffering, save valuable carbon sinks and allow the forests and the community to start the healing process after 40 years of woodchipping.

“Almost half of SEFE’s hardwood inputs come from Victoria and it looks highly improbable that the mill could survive without the Victorian logs and sawmill chips,” Ms Swift said.

“Before it started making losses, Nippon Paper took hundreds of millions of dollars out of this region. It stripped tens of millions of tonnes of trees from the forests and caused the death and suffering of countless birds, mammals and reptiles. It is time for Nippon Paper to call it a day,” she said.

13 May 2014