Land Clearing

21 March 2005

WA company may breach environmental policy in takeover of Tiwi woodchip project

The Environment Centre of the Northern Territory (ECNT) says the imminent takeover by WA company Great Southern Plantations (GSP) of a large scale native forestry operation on the Tiwi Islands risks breaching GSP’s stated environmental principles.

GSP shareholders will be voting in Perth this week (Thursday 24 March) on raising capital for the proposed takeover of Sylvatech Ltd, the company currently responsible for clearing up to 25,000 hectares of native forest on the Tiwi Islands. The clearing, which has been approved by the Tiwi Land Council and NT and Federal Governments, is being done to establish large monoculture plantations of an exotic wattle, Acacia mangium, for woodchips for the Asian market.

ECNT Coordinator Peter Robertson said, “GSP’s website gives the impression that GSP does not involve itself with native forest clearing or logging, but this would no longer be true if the takeover went ahead. The GSP site states:

“ Good for the environment, good for Australia…[your investment] is also good for the environment, with plantation forestry providing a sustainable alternative to the harvesting of Australia’s precious native forests… Great Southern’s plantations do not involve the clearfelling of old growth native forest.”

Mr Robertson added, “What is even more worrying is that GSP seems just as committed as Sylvatech to the four-fold expansion of the project, clearing up to 100,000 hectares of forest– almost 20% of Melville Island. Such an outcome would be devastating to the Island’s environment and would expose the Indigenous community to substantial social and economic risks.

“We believe that the traditional owners and Indigenous communities need much more information about the whole project, including the implications of this corporate takeover and the potential impacts of the proposed expansion. There have been many failed forestry projects in the NT and this one could well fail too, leaving the local Indigenous people in a very exposed situation with a large area of degraded country needing costly rehabilitation.

“Establishing large-scale monocultures of exotic species grown as short rotation commodity crops brings many risks including the likely use of large quantities of toxic chemicals and fertilisers which can harm local species and pollute waterways and ultimately impact on the health of local communities. Exotic species also have a bad habit of becoming weeds in the NT.

“ We are urging GSP shareholders, who we believe are genuine in their concern for the environment and Indigenous communities, to think very carefully before supporting this takeover. If it does go ahead, they must insist that the company drop the proposed expansion.”

For more information contact:
Peter Robertson - 0409 089 020
Email: ecnt@octa4.net.au

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