South Westland

Press, 3 April 1989, Page 20

South Westland

Sir, —Our congratulations to the Government for protecting the South Westland rainforests. At last it is showing some thought for the future. The protection of this precious ecosystem is not a local, regional or even national issue; it is an international issue. The rainforests of South Westland must be saved as vast tracts of forest elsewhere in the world are destroyed. The proposed “scientific logging” may have had little impact initially, but you can bet that if it had become profitable for the logging companies they would have demanded larger and larger areas. As people who have seen the results of "selective logging” — supposedly a sustained use of forest resources — all we can say is that it is a' farce. For indigenous forests there is no way, with selective dr any other logging technique (except maybe helicopter extraction which has been tried and failed), that you can maintain the natural diversity in flora and fauna found in an untouched forest. Loggers have had their way for 100 years. Now it is the conservationists’ turn to look after the indigenous forests that are left.—Yours, etc., ALASTAIR and AMANDA FREEMAN. 2B, 1989.