Vic: Protesters halt logging in Otway Ranges

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-1999
Vic: Protesters halt logging in Otway Ranges

MELBOURNE, Dec 13 AAP - More than 100 protesters have today shut down all logging in
the Otway Ranges, in Victoria's south-west.

Logging had ground to a halt in all eight areas today scheduled for logging in the
Otway forests, an Otway Ranges Environment Network spokeswoman said

The Network said in a statement protesters would bring all clearfelling to a standstill
to draw attention to the "discredited" local forests agreement.

The group said protesters had erected and occupied tree platforms high in the forest
canopy to prevent logging workers going about their work.

Other protesters have been picnicking in logging areas of the ranges, in the hinterland
near the coastal resort of Lorne.

The group said logging posed a threat to the growing tourist industry in the area,
and to the quality of the catchment area that supplied some 250,000 people with water.

AAP gf/st/cjh

KEYWORD: OTWAYS (CARRIED EARLIER)

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