Video footage of the stand by the community against the 'deal' announced by Hancock Victorian Plantations and Victorian Government Environment Minister Gavin Jennings is now on You Tube at

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ICycJXAS-J8

A community forum will be held at the Boolarra Memorial Hall on Sunday 27th July  from 1.00pm

In Australia, the Victorian State Government has just revealed a deal with the US-owned Hancock Victorian Plantations to pay $5.5 million to protect 20,000 ha of native forest in the Strzelecki Ranges.
The ink is hardly dry on the agreement announced by Environment Minister Gavin Jennings and Hancock CEO Linda Sewell, so there hasn't been time to analyse it in detail - but at first reading it looks interesting. The community will need to look at it closely to see if it is likely to achieve the level of biodiversity protection required. 

It's hard to believe that the fiasco of logging sensitive areas in Australia's Strzelecki Ranges is still an issue. Most people thought that after years of negotiations, when the Victorian Government came up with a $7 million deal to buy-back the most important rainforest areas from the US Hancock Group (with the agreement of the company and most of the community) that the problem was solved.

There's an interesting article by Debora MacKenzie in the April 2 edition of New Scientist about what happens to civilisations when they reached a certain 'critical mass'.

In Australia the Victorian Government has just launched its Land and Biodiversity Green Paper which is supposed to be a document which will improve land management in this State. There have already been warnings that Victoria is running out of time to save many native plants and animals threatened with extinction.

Vital areas of Gippsland's Strzelecki Ranges, known as the 'Cores and Links' were supposed to be removed from the threat of logging to protect nationally significant rainforest sites, secure habitat for endangered species and protect the headwaters of waterways which provide drinking water for townships. Although fragmented, it covered some 8000 ha. of important rainforest.

My name is Jim Windwalker.
I am Director of the First Nations Outreach Project a U.S. 501 (c) 3 Native American Non Profit Organization.
My Activist Network is a project of the First Nations Outreach Project.