Gunns is responsible for the logging of the area for the production of woodchips from the hardwood logs. The company’s main customers include Oji Paper, Nippon Unipac Holding and Mitsubishi Paper. According to Greenpeace, the environmental groups have been in discussions recently with the Japanese companies.

Greenpeace is calling on the Federal government to bring an end to logging in the valley. Activists have been staging peaceful demonstrations known as tree-sits in the forest to prevent loggers from continuing the felling. Gunns owns 175,000ha of freehold land in Australia and also manages 65,000ha of plantation forests.

A proposal to include Styx Valley in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area has been supported by the Australian Heritage Commission, the World Heritage Bureau, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

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