Wellington - Environmentalists in Australia and New Zealand staged protests outside branches of the ANZ Bank on Wednesday calling for it to stop funding logging operations in the island state of Tasmania and on Papua New Guinea. The Wilderness Society of Tasmania and New Zealand's Green Party organised the protests to coincide with the United Nations climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia.
Wilderness Society spokesman Paul Oosting said logging and land-clearing in Tasmania already accounted for at least 30 per cent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions, and a proposed new pulp mill was conservatively estimated to add 2 per cent to Australia's annual emissions.
"Both governments and banks have a global responsibility to help cut greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "This starts with refusing support for destructive logging practices and moving to help protect intact native forests."
In New Zealand, Green Party co-leader Russel Norman called on ANZ customers to pressure the ANZ banking group, which is considering investing in the proposed new Tasmanian mill, not to "provide finance for forest destruction" in the state.
Oosting said Tasmanian forests were some of the most "carbon rich" in the world and ancient trees 70-80 metres tall were being felled in the state's Styx Valley, in a woodchip-driven logging operation.
He said the proposed new pulp mill would consume up to 4.5 million tonnes of wood a year, creating greenhouse gasses equivalent to putting an extra 2.3 million cars on the road annually.
Oosting said that the Malaysian company Rimbunan Hijau, an ANZ client, was carrying out logging in Papua New Guinea that had been condemned internationally.
Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens said, "ANZ has a fantastic opportunity to behave as a good corporate citizen. It must take a strong stance against bankrolling the disastrous proposed Tasmanian mill, and refuse to support the unsustainable and illegal logging of rainforests in Papua New Guinea."
