What’s this petition about?

• Using ‘consumer power’ to help drive an end to logging native forests in Victoria.
• Maximising water supply for all Victorians, and stop reducing our ability to fight climate change.
• Protecting the eco-systems we need to survive.
• Leaving our spectacular forests intact for recreation and tourism, it contributes to the success of small business in the local communities that rely upon them.

What’s the solution?

• Remove the demand for copy paper made from native forests by not buying Reflex Ultra White.
• Create demand for sustainable options by buying sustainable alternatives.
• Pressure Officeworks, Australia Post, Woolworths and Coles to stop supplying Reflex Ultra White.

What can I do?

• Sign and share this petition.
• Never buy Reflex Ultra White or other paper that isn’t FSC certified.
• Choose only FSC certified, 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
• Take the Pledge to use ethical paper
• Encourage your workplace and others to take the pledge.

What paper should I use?

• Recommended options for ethically produced paper: Ethical paper options

In more detail:

The Victorian people collectively own spectacular forests that are:

• Some of the oldest, tallest and most carbon dense forests in the world.
• Home to many unique plants and animals not found anywhere else in the world.
• Right on Melbourne’s doorstep and something to be proud of!

They should be treasured:

• As an escape for all Victorians for relaxation and recreation.
• As a crucial component in the fight against climate change and securing Victoria’s water supply.

What are we protecting them from?

Our spectacular forests are being logged and trashed for pulp:

• At a rate that is roughly equivalent of 5 MCGs every day.
• Even though sustainable paper sources are available.
• Fragmenting and destroying habitat, driving many helpless animals to the edge of extinction.
• Mostly for cheap paper products.

Economic madness

• VicForests can access our forests for free, but can’t turn a profit – our taxes subsidise logging by tens of millions of dollars every year.
• By contrast, Victoria could be eligible for between $30–40 million per annum, by using our forests for carbon offsets instead of pulp, under the Federal Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund.
• It makes no economic sense for the Victorian Government to subsidise unprofitable logging at the expense of significant income through offsets and tourism/recreation.

What if we don't stop logging and burning native forest?

Climate change is exacerbated:

• Enormous amounts of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.
• Our capacity to store and sequester carbon is significantly reduced.

Logging occurs in Victoria’s precious water catchments, impacting supply for Victorian communities:

• Logging in catchments reduces not just the quantity, but the quality of water.
• Victorians always do their bit to save water – the good work we’re doing is being subverted as logging in Victoria’s water catchments significantly impacts on our future supply of drinking water.

Logging leaves behind a barren wasteland that’s of no use to anyone:

• Individual trees can be replanted, but forests and eco-systems cannot.
• Continued logging on this scale will eventually result in a dead Victoria.
• Local communities that rely on income from tourism and recreation will lose their livelihood - as will the loggers when the trees are all gone - we have the opportunity to save the livelihood of at least one of these groups if we act now.

Populations of threatened species will continue to plummet, including:

• Victoria’s faunal emblem, the Fairy Possum (or Leadbeater’s possum).
• The Greater Glider.
• The Sooty Owl.

Victoria is part of a wider problem – Australia has now been identified as:

• A global deforestation hotspot – on a par with Borneo and the Amazon.
• Having the highest rate of mammalian extinction in the world – even our koala is endangered.

A wealthy, developed country like Australia can and must do better.