John Seed, founder of the Rainforest Information Centre and the Deep Ecology Network, was arrested yesterday for attaching himself to logging machinery in Bulga State Forest, becoming the 16th person to be arrested in this campaign.
Mr Seed, now in his 79th year, says he had a transformative experience in the rainforests of north east NSW during the Terania Creek protests in 1979.
‘The forest spoke to me,’ he said. ‘Working to keep the trees standing was the best use of my short time on this amazing jewel of a planet, so far the only one of its kind that we know of in this galaxy.
‘It’s 45 years since I was FIRST arrested for the forests (and for which I subsequently received an OAM after the Wran government turned the forest where I was arrested into the Nightcap National Park – now on the World Heritage list along with the Grand Canyon and the Serengeti).
‘I believe the Bulga Forest will also find its way into National Park and World Heritage status once this government wakes up. Then tourism will earn orders of magnitude more than the vandalism that we’re currently trying to stop.’
Precautionary principle abandoned
‘There’s been no proper assessment of the damage done by the 2019/20 fires,’ said Mr Seed.
‘We don’t know how many trees and animals died, how many hollow habitat trees were lost. The most basic element of the precautionary principle is that if you don’t know, stop making things worse.
‘Climate chaos is barrelling towards us. We need to stop making the damage worse and focus on earth repair and building resilience.
‘How can we have hope for a future for our kids and grandkids if our governments insist on destroying the planet’s protection mechanisms?’
In 1995 John Seed was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services to conservation and the environment.
Through his work over the decades, the Rainforest Information Centre has supported communities in PNG, the Solomon Islands, Cambodia, Ecuador, India to defend their forests, through direct action, establishment of protected forest areas, reafforestation programs or funds for litigation.
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