TOKOROA, NEW ZEALAND, 29 October 2008, 2 Greenpeace activists locked on to logging equipment in Kinleith Forest to highlight the conversion of forestry land to intensive dairy. Four activists locked on to equipment and another group rotary hoed 4-metre high letters reading "climate crime" into fresh pasture. 25,000 hectares of the forest are being cleared. Intensive dairy farming is New Zealand's biggest contributor to climate change. 2008 NOT FOR ARCHIVE OR RESALE
TOKOROA, NEW ZEALAND, 29 October 2008. Greenpeace sends a clear message that conversion of forestry land to intensive dairy farms is a crime against the climate. As well as rotary hoeing these 4 metre high letters in freshly cleared pasture, 4 activists also locked onto logging equipment in Kinleith Forest. 25,000 hectares of the forest are being cleared. Intensive dairy farming is New Zealand's biggest contributor to climate change. 2008 NOT FOR ARCHIVE OR RESALE
TOKOROA, NEW ZEALAND, 29 October 2008, A Greenpeace activist locked on to logging equipment in Kinleith Forest to highlight the conversion of forestry land to intensive dairy. Four activists locked on to equipment and another group rotary hoed 4-metre high letters reading "climate crime" into fresh pasture. 25,000 hectares of the forest are being cleared. Intensive dairy farming is New Zealand's biggest contributor to climate change. 2008 NOT FOR ARCHIVE OR RESALE
It's calling for a halt to forest conversion for intensive dairy
in light of the worsening global climate crisis.
The land being converted is part of the Kinleith Forest and
owned by Carter Holt Harvey. 25,000 hectares are being cleared to
make way for corporate farms.
Greenpeace is calling on both major political parties to explain
how they'll address what the National Party has termed a "chainsaw
massacre" and how they'll deal with intensive dairy farming.
"The Labour Party says the emissions trading scheme (ETS) has
stopped the massacre, but this is demonstrably untrue," said
Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Simon Boxer from the site. "Meanwhile
National has been happy to draw attention to deforestation, but
refuses to talk about one of the key drivers - corporate dairy
farming - nor offer up any real solutions.
"We're seeing deforestation for corporate dairy on a scale not
seen before in New Zealand. Tens of thousands of hectares of
forests have already been felled to make way for intensive
farms.
"Latest government figures suggest another half million hectares
is at risk; over seven times the size of Lake Taupo and a quarter
of the nation's total plantation.
"Not only is the deforestation causing annual carbon emissions
equivalent to the Huntly Power station, but the forests are being
replaced by industrial, intensive farms. This is one of the most
greenhouse gas intensive forms of land use. It's killing the
climate and destroying New Zealand's forestry and tourism
sectors.
"If ever there was a climate crime, intensive dairy farming and
the associated chainsaw massacre is it."
Greenpeace is calling on all political parties to ban further
conversion of forests to pasture, to bring agriculture into the ETS
before 2013, and to set an emissions reduction target of 30 per
cent by 2020.
See http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/smartfarming
for more information.
A briefing and Q and A can be found at: http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/tokoroa
Other contacts: Simon Boxer, Climate Campaigner at the site: 021905579
Kathy Cumming, Communications at the site: 021 495 216
VVPR info: For images and video footage, please contact Michelle Thomas - 02102733730