| cheapbag214s |
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| Joined: 27 Jun 2013 |
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| Location: England |
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Lords From the Forests,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
Tasmania's forests really are a prized national asset. A few of the trees were old even before white men first came. Woods like myrtle,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], blackwood,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], sassafras and huon pine,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], make beautiful furniture. Each one is scattered through rich forests of eucalypts.
But over 80 percent of the trees obtained from Tasmania's forests turn into woodchip for Japanese pulp mills. Merely a minority are cut into sawlog making into quality value furniture,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], flooring or building materials.
Native animals tempted by newly planted seedlings are poisoned with 1080-laced carrots. By now the cycle is almost complete; the forest is replanted with native trees,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], or it may be converted into a single species plantation with,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], as one scientist put it,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], "all the biodiversity of a car park".
If this seems an unusual method to treat a national forest treasure,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], think about this: your super contributions might be funding it.
At the heart of these practices is Gunns Limited,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a billion dollar company which now dominates Tasmania's forest industry and cuts an imposing figure on the nation's stock exchange. Gunns' stock price - driven by soaring profits fuelled by woodchips - has surged 900 per cent in only five years.
Underpinning Gunn's prosperity is really a unique political alliance which helps to ensure that Tasmania clear fells and chips more old growth forest than any other state. Gunns may be the prize client and close partner from the government's forestry arm,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Forestry Tasmania.
Forestry Tasmania dismisses claims that it's selling public assets - timber - on the cheap,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. But then there isn't lots of criticism for Forestry Tasmania to cope with,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
The primary political parties are in lock-step about the aggressive forestry policy. Individuals who do question it are labelled anti-jobs. Reliable information - how many trees are cut,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], where, based on how much - is shrouded by a lack of accountability and a raft of secrecy provisions.
In this analysis of an extraordinary company and also the culture which nurtures it,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], reporter Ticky Fullerton puts hard questions to the little group of men that run Tasmania's forests - for example Gunns' boss John Gay,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Forestry Tasmania chief Evan Rolley and Deputy Premier Paul Lennon. |
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