Native Forest Action

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Native Forest Action (NFA) was set up protect the publicly owned native forests of the

West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand
from logging.

The West Coast has extensive stands of virgin native forests and numerous organisations had lobbied for their protection. In 1986 the West Coast Accord was signed between environmental groups and government agencies. There was discord amongst other environmental groups since it was seen to be too much of a compromise towards the logging interests. This should be seen it light of the fact that New Zealand had lost approximately 75% of its original forest cover since human habitation.

In 1997 the NFA campaign involved protesters setting up camps in the forest and tree sitting. In April 1997, one of these sites was deliberately destroyed by swinging a tree from a helicopter into it, allegedly without ensuring that it was fully clear of protesters.[1]

NFA had a campaign of

non-violent direct action which gained it prominence in the media. The New Zealand Labour Party
made an election promise in 1999 to halt the logging. One of the most controversial parts of campaign history was when a bomb was found on a helicopter used for logging. NFA, which had always maintained a policy of non-violence denied vigorously any links to the bomb, and no link was found.

It is claimed that the release of the book Secrets and Lies by

NFA, which as an organisation always had a very informal structure, is now dormant.

References

  1. ^ "When Helicopters Attack: A Near Accident Leads To Coverup" (PDF). Center for Media and Democracy: Prwatch.org. 2000. Retrieved 9 November 2009.
  2. .
  3. ^ "Indigenous West Coast forests transferred to conservation estate". NZ Government. 30 May 2001. Retrieved 16 March 2010.

External links