Feltex denies clearfell plan

Press, 1 November 1982, Page 42

Feltex denies clearfell plan

PA Wellington I Conservationists’ claims that Feltex was about to wreck a Southland forest by clearfelling for wood to make furniture have been by the company and, the forest’s Maori owners. ;The claims were made by the Joint Campaign on Native Forests, incorporating ■ihe lobby groups E.C.O. the Native Forests Action Council, and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, with the Federated Mountain ,Clubs. fj.-They said in a letter sent to every Feltex shareholder that the company was planning totally to clearfell the 2500 ha Waitutu forest, leaving only thin strips on river and coastal margins. “This brief boost to the profits of a minor. Feltex subsidiary can only be obtained at a colossal cost to the natural heritage of New Zealand,” the letter .said.

But the general manager, for Feltex, Mr Derek Sutcliffe, called the allegations “totally untrue and . misleading.”

• He said the Maori owners of the forest had said there • should be “strict regard for environmental values and the long-term maintenance of the forest resource. The agreement specifies that only mature trees be cut and that ■ strict provisions be made to / encourage natural regeneration.”

pi No clearfelling was envisaged or planned, Mr Sutcliffe said. : , L The chairman of the Waitutu Maori Incorporation, s-Mrs Koa Murdoch, also said there would be no clearfelling in the forest, 120 km west of Invercargill. • “As responsible people, we Tee! that our rights to selfdetermination are being in- ! vaded by people who have no rights to do so. . ■ "What gives them (the conservatidnists) the right; to tell

us what to do?” . Mrs Murdoch asked. “That is the point I would really like to make but they do not want to listen.”