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Cellulose Mills: Australia/Uruguay Workshop in Tasmania Shares South-South Advocacy Strategies in Fight against Papermills

Wednesday 4th of May, Tasmania, Australia - CEDHA of Argentina met with an array of community leaders, NGOs and other advocacy actors in Tasmania to share advocacy strategies to oppose the installation of a large-scale pulp mill on the Tamar River in northern Tasmania. The workshop, organized by CEDHA and hosted by the Tamar Residents’ Action Committee, offered participants discussion on advocacy options relevant to the cellulose industry, and focused on human rights violations caused by the pulp mill industry and human rights and environmental protection obligations of private actors in the promotion of pulp production. CEDHA brought the experience of growing local opposition to the installation of two pulp mills on Argentine-Uruguayan border, while a growing number of Tasmanian residents are expressing their own local opposition to the installation of a pulp mill on the Tamar River, concerned over the social, environmental and economic effects expected as a result of the chlorine-based production process to be used by the proposed mill.

Gunns Ltd of Australia is planning to build a 1.1 million tonne per annum Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) pulp facility at Bell Bay on the Tamar River in northern Tasmania. The site was chosen after considering an alternative location at Hampshire, near a large source of plantation timber and feedstock that leans towards implementing cleaner Total Chlorine Free mill technology. However, the site chosen for the mill at Bell Bay puts at risk large tracts of high conservation value and old-growth forest and is adjacent to a pristine river environment supporting tourism, wineries, organic farmers and a community hostile to the proposed pulp mill.

Gunns Ltd have been criticized for their failure to release information regarding the proposed mill, and recently filing legal action against 20 persons who protested against the mills, alleging defamation and loss of earnings only three days prior to releasing the plans for the mill. Investors have reacted strongly to the company’s actions with the price of Gunns Ltd shares falling from a high in 2004 of $4.80 to a low last October of $2.71. CommSec, the Commonwealth Bank’s investment advisory service states that “the pulp mill is an extremely risky investment and the shift to selling pulp on the global market will increase the volatility of Gunns’ earnings.”

The Annual report of Gunns Ltd released in 2005 reveals that five of the top 20 shareholders in the company are Equator Principle Financial Institutions, banks obliged to comply with IFC and World Bank standards. These standards include the Pollution Prevention and Control Handbook (Pulp and Paper) which states Elemental Chlorine Free pulp mills are not preferred for environmental reasons. Deutsche Bank, another major shareholder in Gunns Ltd, recently pulled out of risky pulp mill projects in Indonesia. CEDHA, in the Uruguayan mill case, successfully pressed ING Group of the Netherlands, a leading Equator Bank, to pull US$480 million out of the controversial Uruguayan papermill investment. Tasmanian residents are studying strategies to do the same with private investors in the Gunns Ltd. investment.

The Integrated Impact Assessment, Tasmania’s equivalent to EIA is slated to be released in the upcoming month, promising to deliver detailed information on the impacts of the mill.

Another global workshop is planned in the near future to bring together other anti-cellulose mills advocates from around the world.

More Information

For more information contact:

David Barnden
Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA)
david@cedha.org.ar