Gunns’ pulp mill – still not worth the risk

The Wilderness Society Tasmania maintains our opposition to Gunns’ Tamar Valley pulp mill.

On November 24, 2011, Gunns will hold their AGM. This year it will be held in Melbourne for the first time. We’ll be travelling to the meeting with a dedicated group of Tamar Valley locals to ensure Gunns shareholders realise the mill still fails to enjoy a social license and has a range of outstanding legacy issues.

Recently we wrote to potential joint venture partners. It is imperative that anyone considering investing in this project is aware of the ongoing opposition to the project and the outstanding issues that remain unaddressed.

We wrote to companies such as Scandinavian pulp giants UPM and Sodra and China’s APP.

The Wilderness Society’s opposition to this project remains based on a range of environmental and social issues that have never been properly addressed and the failure of the project assessment process on a number of levels. As such, the Wilderness Society continues to actively campaign against this proposal.

It is widely accepted that the assessment process by which this project was approved at the State level was perverted, subject to significant political interference and inadequate in a range of areas

Numerous important issues remain unassessed or unresolved. This includes issues critical to the protection of the environment, especially the marine environment, the local air shed and fresh water usage.

We are in a time of great potential to progress the forest industry out of its historically high level conflict with the community. The Wilderness Society believes this project would only serve to commit the both pulp mill itself and the logging industry in general to decades of ongoing controversy, conflict and protest.

To build the new Tasmanian timber industry around a project that has been the centre of widespread community controversy and conflict would be an unfortunate outcome for both the state and the industry.