Bellamy returns to the Dinosaur Forest

Twenty-five years after he coined the phrase, Professor David Bellamy is returning to New Zealand's "Dinosaur Forest".

Bellamy will be the guest of honour for September's Whirinaki 25 community event which celebrates a quarter century since the bitter battle to protect the native trees within Whirinaki Forest Park.

At the time, Bellamy fronted up for the cause with a vision for the forest to become a mecca for world eco-tourism and thereby provide for the surrounding communities.

It was this vision that helped swing opinion in the way of the conservationists and saw the protection of New Zealand's best remaining tract of lowland podocarp forest.

The giant kahikatea, miro, totara, matai and rimu still standing untouched in the park today bear testimony to the dispute and in part at least to Bellamy's efforts to wedge himself in the thick of things.

He has subsequently forged an international reputation as the world's favourite tree-hugger and even today, is still battlling for what he believes - he is a passionate opponent of the "human-induced global warming" theory and a patron to numerous environmental organisations.

Whirinaki remains as one of his favourite places on the planet and his return for the Whirinaki 25 event from September 4-6 will offer a chance to reflect on the promises of the '80s, to assess what has been achieved and to forecast what the forest's future might hold.

Mostly, however, it will be a chance to celebrate the 25-year milestone in the history of the Dinosaur Forest; a place that is both millions of years old but still largely undiscovered.

Bellamy's attendance marks the Whirinaki 25 as an event not to be missed on this year's social calendar.

ENDS

Whirinaki 25 event details are available at http://www.doc.govt.nz/whirinaki25

Gordon Campbell: On John Key’s Agenda For The Nation

There seemed to be three main components to John Key’s speech:

a) tax cuts largely paid for by a hike in GST
b) mining in national parks and on conservation land, while building more roads.
c) giving firms easier access to the r&d from Crown Research Institutes, so that business can continue to get the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the research that keeps them competitive.

After all, corporate welfare is always such a blessed thing – its only social welfare that corrodes enterprise and ambition. More>>