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The battle over Tasmania's old-growth forests has taken a new turn with the logging and timber products group Gunns forced to call an extraordinary meeting amid shareholder demands for the company to ban itself from taking any wood products from certain forests.
A group of shareholders has asked Gunns' board to amend the articles of association so that directors cannot allow Gunns to develop, clearfell, selectively log or accept product from certain forest areas that conservation groups in Tasmania want protected.
Gunns' board has asked shareholders who will be attending the meeting on August 29 to reject the motion proposed by 100 investors.
The company says these investors control fewer than 250,000 shares, or about 0.3 per cent of the stock.
Among the forest areas designated off-limits by the shareholders are: the Styx Valley of the Giants National Park; proposed extensions to World Heritage areas, certain reserves proposed by the Wilderness Society, the Tasmanian Conservation Trust, proposed extensions to the Ben Lomond National Park; the Tasman Peninsula; Reedy Marsh State Forests; the Great Western Tiers region, and Tarkine.
This is the second time Gunns has fielded such a request this year.
In a statement accompanying the notice of meeting, the shareholders noted that the Wilderness Society estimated as much as 75 per cent of Gunns' woodchips and sawlogs came from old-growth forests. They argued that Gunns' earnings and dividends would come under pressure as more old-growth forests were protected and, while other timber companies were selling native forest operations, Gunns "has taken the high-risk approach of buying additional assets based on native forest logging".
Gunns shares were 14¢ higher yesterday at $12.15.