14 February, 2003
In order to protect the tallest hardwood trees in the world which remain in Tasmania Australia that are being logged 'cheaply' to become paper materials to be imported into Japan, Japanese citizens have expressed the intention to buy the logging royalties to protect the trees.
Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN), a Japanese NGO who is active world forest conservation, sent a letter on the 14th of February, 2003, to Forestry Tasmania, the public corporation who manage Tasmanian public forests, and requested the handover of the logging royalties of the tall trees from the old growth forests.
In September last year, JATAN announced the 'Campaign to save Tasmanian old growth forest by ourselves' and appealed to the public that the oldest, tallest temperate old growth forests in the world are being logged at cheap royalties of an average of $10 per ton and exported to Japan to be made into paper. And, to enable Japanese people to express their opposition to this kind of logging, JATAN promoted the campaign to symbolically protect trees from logging by buying some of the tall trees.
Tasmania produces about 60 percent of all Australian woodchips and is the place where the rate of forest destruction is at its worst in Australia. Even tall trees of up to 300-400 tons and a height of 90 metres are being logged at the cost of around $3,000-4,000 of logging royalties which is extremely 'cheap' in terms of the impact on the environment.
Through e-mail, the JATAN's website and other methods of response, JATAN has had 65 respondents replying that they will participate in the campaign to protect the trees by buying the logging royalties. The total amount of money that the 65 people replied that they are willing to contribute has exceeded $10,000. According to this amount, it is possible to buy the logging royalties of 3 or 4 trees that amount to 300 tons, and it expresses the wishes of Japanese people to protect these old growth forests. Ninety seven percent of respondents showed their opposition to the logging of old growth forests through 67 percent replying that Tasmanian old growth forests should definitely not be logged, and 30 percent replying that they should not be logged if there is an alternative.
It is uncertain whether or not Forestry Tasmania will allow the sale of the logging royalties to outsiders, however we as Japanese people have not only been able to express our wish to protect the precious forests, but we have also been able to tell Japanese people that the forests are being logged ÔcheaplyÕ for paper consumption in Japan.
In Australia, about three-quarters of native forest hardwood that is logged is processed into woodchips and almost all is exported to Japan. On the other hand, of all hardwood woodchips that are imported into Japan, about 30 percent is from Australia. In Japan, hardwood woodchips are used mainly in the production of printing and information.