Boycott Woodchipping Campaign
Boral Ltd Corporate Profile
Forest Resource's continued clearing of native forests for export woodchips and subsequent plantation establishment has a number of environmental problems. Clearance and burning leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions - a known "greenhouse" gas contributing to global warming - as well as soil erosion, sedimentation of creeks through run off and loss of habitat.41 Once the plantation is established the area is substantially modified, becoming a monoculture - no longer providing the range of values needed for the animals that previously lived in the forest. Forest Resource's intensive plantation management has had an environmental impact. Monoculture plantations require large doses of chemicals to suppress weed growth, to deal with insect infestations and to kill browsing wildlife.
Atrazine
Atrazine (2-chloro-1-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-1,3,5-triazine) is a chlorinated triazine herbicide which kills plants by binding to the cell membrane, preventing photosynthesis and causing leaching of chlorophyll. The poison also leads to the release of free radicals, which are highly reactive - and hence damaging - molecules. Tests on a range of animals have shown weight loss, anaemia, irritability of skin and eyes and increased growth of the liver, ovary and heart. Atrazine has been shown to cause cancers of the breasts, uterus and testicles of rats as well leukemia and lymphoma. In human females exposure increases development of tumours (especially of the ovary) by 2.7 times, and elevates the risk of non-Hogkins lymphoma in both sexes. The poison is also known to be a xeno-oestrogen or "gender bender" in that it affects maturation of sexual organs and modifies pituitary activity.42
Atrazine can take up to a year to break down into its degradation products (or metabolites). Some of the metabolites are considered to be more than fours times as toxic than the herbicide itself. It is highly mobile in soils and capable of leaching down into deep water tables. It has also been detected in rainwater and fog. The US EPA has imposed some restrictions on its use, and Holland and Germany have banned its use altogether, and have urged the EC to ban the chemical as a whole. The World Health Organisation recommends 2 ppb as the acceptable level of atrazine contamination; in Europe it is 0.1 ppb. In Australia the level is much higher at 20 ppb.42
In Australia Atrazine is an important component of forest "management". In Tasmania, spraying of the herbicide Atrazine in plantations accounts for 85% of application while the remaining 15% is used by industry around factories, private individuals and municipal councils for weed control of drains and roadsides.43 While Forestry Tasmania has currently suspended use of Atrazine, Forest Resources has not to date developed a policy of not using it.44 Boral has used Atrazine extensively in the establishment of its Tasmanian plantations, as well as related products such as Simazine and other triazines, repeatedly spraying their plantations.45
1080
1080, or sodium monoflouroacetate, is a wildlife poison designed to kill browsing animals such a wallabies, and rabbits which enter eucalypt plantations and agricultural lands in search of feed. The poison effects the central nervous, cardiac and respiratory systems and causes paralysis, vomiting and disorientation before an agonising death, which can last for several hours - occasionally days. Its effects differ in various animals, but the impact is greatest on domestic animals, particularly dogs. In 1989-90, eighty-three tonnes of poisoned carrots were laid by the agricultural and forestry sectors in Tasmania.46 According to the Hobart Public Analyst one drop of 1080 in solution is capable of killing three adult humans.
Despite widespread community outrage, Boral continues to lay poisoned bait in its plantations. The Tasmanian Government, unduly influenced by the forestry and farming lobby, has done little to ameliorate the situation, on the basis that other longer-term alternatives such as proper fencing and tree guards are not economically viable. Constant application is necessary, as population crashes simply create an environment which is rapidly recolonised by adjacent populations.
In November 1995, Forest Resources indicated that it would be laying 1080 in one of its private plantations near Wegeena in northern Tasmania. Preliminary surveys of the area by the Deloraine Field Naturalists revealed that an important regional population of the small marsupial, the Bettong (believed extinct on mainland Australia) was located adjacent to the site.47 Despite local protests the area was poisoned. The Parks Service admitted to the Field Naturalists that it was possible that the population could crash by as much as 50% as a result of the poisoning.48
According to the company, Boral is fully committed to operating in an environmentally responsible manner. At the 1995 Annual General Meeting, Chairman Peter Cottrell repeated ad infinitum the rhetoric that Boral "seeks to be responsible", and that its "operates under government approval". On other occasions company employees have made statements that no old growth is harvested for woodchips in New South Wales and that Boral does not clearfell forests.
In 1977 an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was prepared relating to only some timber sources for woodchips. In 1993, years after the commencement of export woodchipping, Sawmillers Export Pty Ltd finally prepared a Supplementary EIS, concerning timber sources not covered in the original EIS. The SEPL EIS was released in 1994 and found to be deficient by environment groups. The North East Forest Alliance considers the EIS to be inadequate on the grounds that it:
- does not satisfy the requirements of the Administrative Procedures of Department of Environment Sport and Territories (DEST) Guidelines made pursuant to the EP(IP) Act;
- does not adequately describe the environment of the supply area or sites from where woodchips will be taken;
- has not sufficiently identified the environmental impacts due to woodchipping, including impact on endangered species, National Estate, World Heritage and Aboriginal Heritage;
- relies on State Forest EIS's for specific impact assessment, even though only two such EIS's have been produced for a fraction of the supply area and the Commonwealth Government has not accredited the State EIS's as they do not satisfy Commonwealth Government obligations.49
SEPL are permitted to take woodchips from four sources: private property operations, silvicultural residues, logging residues and sawmill residues. The use of logging residues for woodchips (trees felled for sawlogs but found to be unsuitable) has never been the subject of an EIS.49
The licence was reissued by the Federal Government.
In the supply area for SEPL's private property and silvicultural residue operations there are four fauna and ten flora species listed on Schedule 1 of the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992 as endangered. Four fauna, and fifty-seven flora species listed as vulnerable. These are potentially threatened by logging operations. The purported SEPL EIS does not adequately consider the imacts on these species, neither does it identify the threats posed to them by operations nor propose species impact mitigation measures.49
Early in 1993 Boral logged old growth forest which was part of the New England Wilderness. They did not acquire a licence from National Parks and Wildlife Service as required by law, to take and kill endangered species.50
On June 29 1994 The Wilderness Society requested that the Federal Government not renew SEPL's export woodchipping licence on the grounds that:
- it would contribute to the destruction of seven world heritage and wilderness areas in NE NSW (New England, Barrington Tops, Guy Fawkes, Washpool, Bindery, Werrikimbe, Mckleay Gorges) that have been found by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to be "substantially unmodified";
- further threaten biodiversity according to the Biodiversity Convention signed by Australia;
- entrench ecologically unsustainable native forest woodchipping when less than 6% of Australia's landcover is native forest 51
Boral tries to create an impression that its base is in value adding rather that woodchip production. Before the 1996 woodchip export licences were issued, Boral Timber announced studies into value adding manufacturing projects worth 100 million dollars in Tasmania. Green MHA Peg Putt called the announcement "a cynical exercise aimed at improving the company's chance of retaining its 947,000 tonne woodchip export licence". The announcement came some ten days before Federal Cabinet was due to approve woodchip export quotas for 1996. Resources Minister David Beddall indicated that companies' plans for downstream processing are scrutinised when their applications are assessed.69
These proposed value adding projects have yet to materialise.
In the environmentally-aware 'nineties it has become increasingly more difficult for companies involved in destructive practices to escape undetected. This has led to a flourishing trade for public relations companies, whose main aim is to bombard the public with "good news" stories on the company's activities, and to enter into "damage control" when things get tough. This general strategy has been termed "greenwashing". Another less pleasant side to PR tactics has been the increasing use of "front" groups, which appear as independent pressure groups, but are in fact bankrolled by the industry.
The Forest Protection Society Limited (FPS) was created in November 1987 in south eastern News South Wales by timber industry sympathisers and claims to have 48 branches nationally73 - nine in Tasmania.74 An undated Forest Protection Society, leaflet states that it is "a grassroots organisation which provides a national, independent voice for the thousands of people who are concerned about the future of forests" . Its close ties to industry has led to assertions that this "community" lobby group acts as a front for the woodchipping industry. The National Association of Forest Industries founded in March of the same year, and of which Boral is a member, paid more than 20% of its budget to the FPS - or $905,800 - for the financial year 1994-5.73.
Boral has been involved with other industry-funded initiatives involving the FPS. In May 1994 woodchippers North, Boral, Bunnings, Harris Daishowa and Midway Forest Products announced in The Australian that they would be funding a 2 million dollar pro-woodchipping advertising campaign to be developed by media guru John Singleton. Under the banner of the "Pulpwood Producers' Group", which included Forest Protection Society figurehead Robin Loydell as a "community spokesperson" the campaign was launched by footballer David Campese, an ex-sawmiller.76
In 1995 Boral Timber distributed a memo purporting to be an authoritative summary of events at The Wilderness Society's "Wild Agendas" conference; the memo contained outlandish claims designed to discredit environmentalists. "Stealth" memos are written with an element of plausibility to ensure that they are used unquestioningly by third parties such as under parliamentary privilege or by journalists. They are distributed for background use only to ensure the corporate source is concealed. Boral's memo is the first one to be leaked in Australia.72
FIAT is an employers' body formed in 1983 and includes hardwood producers and woodchipping interests. Needless to say this group is highly antipathetic to conservation interests. Boral plays a significant role in FIAT, with Ross Waining (General Manager Boral Timbers Tasmania) acting as one of the Association's Directors.77
One of FIAT's main roles is to provide financial support for Tasmania's annual "World Forestry Day", a showcase PR exercise designed to shore up support within the industry. The dinner and awards ceremony is bankrolled by FIAT and co-ordinated by timber industry "front" group the Hoo Hoo Club77, an international pro-industry lobby group created in the US.
FIAT has also been involved with the FPS on a number of projects including the organising of a rally in Launceston in January 1995, which featured Premier Ray Groom, federal ALP member Dick Adams and a wide range of pro-woodchipping interests.77
One of the tactics adopted by the timber industry in North America, and quickly copied in Australia, has been the concerted attempt to label almost any conservation group as "extreme". FIAT is one of the main timber bodies in Tasmania responsible for perpetuating the myth that mainstream environment groups are comprised of "extremists" and "radicals"; the 1995 Annual Report uses such loaded adjectives over thirty times. The strategy behind this campaign is to marginalise environmentalism as something akin to terrorism and is a clever public relations stunt. This term has become so commonplace that even participants at the National Forest Summit - a regular, joint meeting of all major environment groups in Australia including state conservation councils, the Australian Conservation Foundation and The Wilderness Society - have been labelled "eco-extremists".78
In Tasmania, these smear tactics were first promoted in 1992 by the Forest Industry of Tasmania, of which Boral is a member group, in a campaign called "The Fight Against the Big Lie"79, a direct borrowing from a US timber industry campaign.80 Co-incidental to this campaign was the sudden increase in so-called "tree-spiking" incidents. On March 21, 1994, for instance, an anonymous press release was issued detailing grid co-ordinates of forests in the south of the state that had supposedly been spiked.81
In 1994 FIAT took the campaign further and undertook to finance a Tasmanian "Bush Watch" program in conjunction with Tasmania Police:
"The decision to facilitate the development of a Bush Watch was made after a number of tree spiking incidents which put workers in sawmills in danger of serious injury and possible loss of life." 77
Conservation groups throughout Australia have consistently repeated their commitment to non-violence and have condemned vandalism. Bush Watch has made them a convenient scapegoat for timber community prejudice and smear campaigns.
In May 1995 Boral announced that it would be seeking accreditation with Scientific Certification Systems for some of its native forest operations.70 In our opinion, this was an obvious attempt to cash in on the current interest in "eco-labelling" schemes. To date, none of Boral's logging activities have been accredited under any such scheme, but the impression has been created for shareholders and public alike that Boral is moving in the right direction.
Support for other soft sell approaches includes support of the National Parks and Wildlife Foundation and sponsorship of the 1992 National Parks and Wildlife Service Visitor Guide. Boral also provides the Australian Royal Institute of Architects "Sustainable Design" scholarship and is featured in RIAA-associated publications.
Boral must:
- End woodchipping of native forests immediately;
- Stop clearance of native forests for plantation substitution;
- Immediately transfer all forestry operations into its already well-established plantation estate.
The construction of the Olympic Village currently offers construction companies the chance for huge contracts. Boral is a sponsor for the Olympic games and has tendered for Olympic building contracts. It appears that Boral has already been awarded some share in the construction of the so-called "Multiplex".82 A total of 13 million dollars' worth of timber will be needed for the construction.
All building materials used for the construction should comply with green standards. This should include the environmental reputation of companies applying for the work. Conservation groups, having initially supported the concept of a "Green Olympics" are now considering the utilisation of timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international body of NGOs, Indigenous peoples and Community groups as well as Industry that accredits forestry operations in "well managed" forests. Europe's largest hardware chainstore, B&Q, has already negotiated three year contracts from small scale, community-based operations accredited via certifiers recognised by the FSC. European sales under this existing scheme could be as high as AUS 5 billion dollars. This labelling scheme is obtaining increasing market share in advance of unfinished plans such as the International Organisation of Standardisation's ISO 14001, generally unsupported by conservation NGOs. Boral has little chance of obtaining FSC accreditation unless management practices alter dramatically.83
This group have voiced their concern about Boral's activities in the forests at the last two Boral Annual General Meetings. They have also met several times with managing director Antony Berg and the manager of the timber division.
Boral Green Shareholders,
PO Box 173,
Round Corner, NSW 2156.
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