Norske Skog congratulated for ruling out native forests

The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) Inc
Environment Tasmania Inc
Joint Media Release
17 November 2009

Environment Tasmania and the Wilderness Society today congratulated Norske Skog on upgrades to its Boyer pulp mill in southern Tasmania, which mean only recycled material and plantation timber will be used in the mill from now on.

“We welcome the fact that Norske Skog will no longer use Tasmania’s precious native forests to create pulp,” said Phill Pullinger of Environment Tasmania. “This is an exciting demonstration from the industry that it is not necessary to log Tasmania’s native forests to be profitable,”

“Norske Skog's leadership sets the direction for forest policy and management - politicians and other timber businesses in our state should take notice.” said Dr Pullinger.

Throughout the 1980s, the Boyer pulp mill was struggling to remain commercially viable. It was responsible for the logging of ancient forests in places such as the Styx and Florentine. In the early 1990s, the mill was significantly upgraded, improving its environmental performance and enabling the company to stop logging old-growth forests. The Boyer pulp mill does not use harmful chemicals such as chlorine dioxide in the pulping process. Instead it uses a thermo-mechanical process.

“For the last twenty years, owners of the Boyer pulp mill have been consistently improving its operations,” said Paul Oosting, pulp mill and corporate campaigner for the Wilderness Society. “A pulp mill which was formerly a major destroyer of old-growth forests is now using only recycled material and plantations.

“This demonstrates that we can have a sustainable timber industry based on the smart use of existing plantation resources without the need to destroy our ancient native forests. There is a win-win future on the horizon for all Tasmanians,” concluded Mr Oosting.