Ecological Internet Welcomes ANZ Bank Withdrawal from Tasmanian Pulp Mill Disaster

By Ecological Internet, http://www.ecologicalinternet.org/ and Forests.org, http://forests.org/

Ecological Internet (EI) welcomes news that ANZ Bank of  Australia will not fund the Gunns Tasmanian pulp mill. In a  statement ANZ announced it will not provide finance for the  AU$ 2 billion project to pulp ancient forests for throw-away  paper products, but did not provide a reason for withdrawing.  International environmental protest spearheaded by Ecological  Internet, in support of local protests, certainly played a  major role. 

ANZ Bank, and the Australian and Tasmanian governments, have  been targets of environmental protest in country and from  Ecological Internet and other overseas groups for years. Most  recently, in early April, nearly 3,000 EI Earth Action Network  participants from 87 countries sent a quarter of a million  protest emails to ANZ and the Australian government asking  that ANZ withdraw funding. The Australian national government  was also called out for their hypocrisy in supporting  protection of forests overseas to address climate change, but  not in Tasmania. The archived successful alert can be found at: http://www.climateark.org/alerts/send.asp?id=australia_tasmania_climate

"Thankfully, ANZ Bank has finally listened to its customers  and global citizens sickened by their profiteering from  ancient forest slaughter. They should be commended for  withdrawing from the ecologically disaster Gunns pulp mill.  Now perhaps ANZ will reexamine their lending to notorious  rainforest destroyer Rimbunan Hijau in Papua New Guinea as  well. And Australia end its logging shame by pulling Gunns'  pulp mill environmental approvals, ending this ghoulish  project once and for all," says Ecological Internet President  Dr. Glen Barry.

"It is amazing what global citizens, through participation in  a strong network anchored by a reliable hub, can achieve  together for ecological sustainability. As Ecological Internet  continues to raise funds to meet basic costs for our unique  brand of biocentric activism on the net, we hope this latest  in a string of victories will lead to increased individual and  foundation support for our campaign to end ancient forest  logging." 

Ecological Internet stands alone as the only major  international forest campaigning group working to end ancient  forest logging and all industrial destruction of relatively  intact natural ecosystems. We seek permanent protections for  all remaining primary and old-growth forests (with appropriate  compensation and continued small scale use for local peoples),  advocate for ecological restoration and certified management  of regenerating and planted natural forest ecosystems, and  promote local peoples' pursuit of small-scale, community-based  eco-forestry projects based upon regenerating secondary and  standing ancient forests. This is the true path to global  forest sustainability.

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