Last Saturday Tim Clifford from the Wilderness Society walked 55km from the Alcoa mines in the Northern Jarrah Forests to Parliament House as part of the campaign to end forest mining.
He stopped half way to meet supporters in Gosnells and was met by 100 supporters on the steps of Parliament House.
In the last 10 years mining has been responsible for clearing a greater area than logging with Alcoa alone cutting down 60,000 trees a year, according to the Wilderness Society.
The forest, part of only three global biodiversity hotspots in Australia, is one of 19 Australian ecosystem under threat of ecological collapse from climate change according to United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Next year the Environmental Protection Authority will also assess the mining operations risk to Perth’s drinking water after complaints from the Water Authority.
Gosnells local Paddy Cullen (left of picture) said “This walk by Tim Clifford has been a wake-up call for many people.
“Australia is a deforestation nation in a time when we need trees to protect our unique biodiversity, protect our water and stave off climate change,” he said.
“WA is supposed to have a vegetation positive policy but we are going in the wrong direction.
“In this critical decade for action on climate change it’s time for the bauxite miners to leave the forests and give this unique ecosystem a chance to heal and do its job in absorbing carbon and protecting us from climate change.”
