FUND UPDATE: 62% to goal, 140 donors. How many more victories are possible if you donate now? Don't let it end. http://forests.org/donate/ ******************
PRESS RELEASE Ecological Internet Welcomes ANZ Bank Withdrawal from Tasmanian Pulp Mill Disaster May 31, 2008 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. ###ENDS### Contact: Dr. Glen Barry, [EMAIL PROTECTED], +1 920 776 1075 --- You are subscribed to ecological_internet as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Before unsubscribing, please consider modifying your list profile at: http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/subscribe/[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or click here: http://email.ecoearth.info/u?id=84041H&n=T&c=F&l=ecological_internet To subscribe visit: http://www.ecoearth.info/subscribe/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
