The Bob Brown Foundation and the Australian Forests and Climate Alliance (AFCA) today held a demonstration outside the Asia Pacific Rainforest Summit. Lorraine Bower from AFCA said that while the groups welcome the Summit on protecting rainforests taking place at a regional level, it is disappointed in the Australian government’s performance in protecting rainforests at home and in our region.

“All the focus at the Summit seems to be on how other Asia Pacific countries can improve the protection of their rainforests and stop illegal logging. There is little or no discussion going on of how Australia can improve its own performance” said Ms Bower.

“The Abbott government already has a very poor record on the protection of rainforests across the nation from a variety of threats, including development, logging and mining” said Jenny Weber of the Bob Brown Foundation. “In Tasmania’s Tarkine, Australia’s largest tract of cool temperate rainforest, State and Federal Governments usher in destructive practices such as large scale logging and mining instead of protecting its globally significant values.

“In the wet tropics in Queensland, rainforests face a variety of threats including clearing for development, and the Australian government is doing little or nothing to address these threats.”

“In the Asia-Pacific region our Government has an appalling record of propping up rainforest destruction such as the corrupt timber barons in Sarawak, Malaysia where some of the most biodiverse rainforests on the globe, and indigenous peoples who rely on these rainforests for food,” Jenny Weber said.

At the demonstration, campaigners from ACT NOW! Papua New Guinea spoke passionately about their tragic loss of forests, which are both livelihood and home. They described Australia as the largest single beneficiary of rampant and unsustainable logging and land grabbing in PNG. “In PNG forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, but Australia has not said or done anything about the huge SABL land grab or the continuing problem of corruption that is driving rainforest destruction", said Effrey Dademo, Program Manager for ACT NOW!

“It seems a pity and rather hypocritical that the Australian government doesn’t seem inclined to face its own shortcomings in protecting rainforests” Ms Bower said. “There are many things that can be done to help countries in our region improve levels of protection. There are also things that can be done here that would make an enormous difference both to our country and those around us.”