They will also pressure Japanese paper and packaging users and manufacturers to switch to plantation-based woodchips. Japan Rainforest Network Action director Takahiro Kohama and Friends of the Earth, Japan, trustee Tokiharu Okazaki said Japan must stop buying cheap Australian old growth woodchips both to stop the devastation of Australian forests and to protect Japan's plantation industry. Their visit to Australia strengthens links with Australian environmentalists who see them as important allies in their fight to stop old growth forests being logged.
Japan is the main market for Australian woodchips, most of which comes from Tasmania.
The Japanese have visited forests around Eden in south-eastern New South Wales, East Gippsland, and the Styx Valley in central Tasmania. They will go on to the Tarkine in north-western Tasmania and to Western Australia. Mr Kohama said Japanese greens had been concerned about Australian woodchips and they wanted to see the situation for themselves. Mr Okazaki said Japan itself had adequate plantations to supply the country's woodchip needs, but it was cheaper to buy from Australia. This was causing unemployment in Japanese timber communities and environmental problems like erosion and water pollution because the plantations, often on steep hills, were not being thinned.