Alec Marr is an Australian conservationist and former executive director of the Wilderness Society (TWS) in Australia From 1998 to 2010. [1] He has been a forest campaigner, lobbyist and international campaign advisor.
In 1986 Marr joined forest campaigners at the Hobart office of the Wilderness Society where he began organising a forest blockade at Farmhouse Creek in Tasmania's south-west. In February 1986 he climbed 20 metres to a tree sit and stayed there for 16 days. The Farmhouse Creek protest became front-page news across Australia. [2] [3]
In 1989 he and fellow Wilderness Society campaigner Geoff Law, negotiated the Salamanca Agreement. The Labor-Green Accord negotiations led to an increase in Tasmania's World Heritage estate from 235,000 to 550,000 hectares. Further negotiations with the federal government extended the protected area to 600,000 hectares. [4]
In 1992 Marr led the direct action that stopped limestone mining at Exit Cave in Tasmania's southwest, which at the time was the longest known cave in Australia. [5] Subsequently, he became The Wilderness Society's spokesperson for the Long Hot Summer forest campaign of 1992–93. [6]
As TWS's national lobbyist from 1994, Marr negotiated with the Keating and Howard governments over wood chipping. [7]
In March 1998 Marr was among the first to be arrested at what proved to be a several-months long, but ultimately successful, protest against uranium mining at Jabiluka in the Northern Territory. [8] After his arrest Marr joined traditional owners in lobbying the World Heritage Committee to stop Uranium Mining inside the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park, at Jabiluka. [9] The campaign to stop Uranium Mining was ultimately successful after Marr and Leanne Minshull led the Wilderness Society's corporate activism against the mining company, North Limited, significantly reducing the company's share price. [10]
In May 1998 Marr became executive director of The Wilderness Society. [11]
Meanwhile, TWS kept growing. When Marr became director the Society was virtually bankrupt with an annual turn-over of less than $1 million. Ten years later, by 2008, the Society had a budget of $15 million with a membership of 45,000. One hundred and fifty employees worked across the country. Paid campaign teams operated in every state. [12]
Marr steered the Wilderness Society on a corporate campaign against Gunns, the country's largest timber company and one of the world's largest exporter of woodchips. [13] The Society took the issue to Gunns' customers in Japan and the company's financial backers. [14]
However, Marr's leadership in the campaign against Gunns resulted in two separate writs brought in the Supreme Court of Victoria. Marr was named as the lead defendant among 14 others in a claim alleging interference in the practices of Gunns Ltd in six separate incidents. [15] The case was recognised as Australia's biggest strategic lawsuit against public participation at the time. [16] When finally settled in 2010 the case was reported to have cost Gunns Ltd $2.8 million including $1.3 million paid to the Wilderness Society. [17]
A consultant's audit commissioned by Marr in 2008 had reported there was "a combative approach by managers" and lack of transparency in the matter of pay structures, including commissions, bonuses, and perceived perks. [18] [19]
By the end of 2009 Lyndon Schnieders had failed in his bid to become appointed as the Wilderness Society's National Campaigns Director after an international applicant was chosen for the position. [20] Imminently following the staffing decision, Marr claimed he was in a power struggle with Schnieders and chaos enveloped the Society. [20] Several staff members allied to Schnieders began expressing no confidence in Marr's leadership. [20] Marr convened an annual general meeting in November 2009 known to only the governing National Management Committee. At the meeting, the Society's constitution was changed to ensure 10% of the membership was required to call for an extraordinary general meeting, and not 20 which had been the previous requirement. [20]
A 2010 ruling by the Tasmanian Supreme Court found that the AGM held in November 2009 by Marr was not legitimate. [21] Following the ruling, several of the Society's staff, led by Lyndon Schneiders, were easily able to garner the 20 members required to call an extraordinary general meeting to oust Marr and the National Management Committee of the Society. [22] In September 2010, Marr's resignation was forced by an extradentary general meeting of the Wilderness Society held in Adelaide. [22] At the time, Marr claimed there was a conspiracy to remove him and alleged 'cronyism' within the organisation. [23]
Within several weeks of Marr's departure from the Wilderness Society, Lyndon Schneiders became National Director, disbanding both the Wild Country and Climate Change programs established under the leadership of Marr. [24]
In his final months at the Wilderness Society, Marr and fellow campaigners had conceived the idea of buying Gunns' controversial Triabunna Woodchip Mill on the east coast of Tasmania, at the time it was the largest woodchip mill in the southern hemisphere.
Marr found buyers in Wotif founder Graeme Wood and Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron. Negotiating on their behalf, Marr convinced the new management at Gunns to sell to Wood and Cameron, who purchased the mill for around $10 million. [25] In July 2011 Marr was appointed general manager of the woodchip mill. In July 2014 Tasmanian media published a refutation by Marr of accusations that he had been installed with the express intention of sabotaging the plant as reported in an article in the Monthly. [26]
In 2014 Marr was present at the 38th session of the World Heritage Committee in Doha, Qatar on the occasion of the hearing into the proposal to remove 74,000 ha from Tasmania's World Heritage Area. [27] At the meeting, Marr and other conservationists successfully worked with State Parties on the World Heritage Committee to stop the World Heritage revocations of Tasmania forests.
In 2019 Marr became a strategic adviser to the NSW based Colong Foundation for Wilderness. Marr's work centres around lobbying of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee on the proposed raising of the Warragamba Dam wall. [28]
Robert James Brown is an Australian former politician, medical doctor and environmentalist. He was a senator and the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate on the Tasmanian Greens ticket, joining with sitting Greens Western Australia senator Dee Margetts to form the first group of Australian Greens senators following the 1996 federal election. He was re-elected in 2001 and in 2007. He was the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia and the first openly gay leader of an Australian political party.
The Gordon-below-Franklin Dam project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of the most significant environmental campaigns in Australian history.
The Gordon River is a major perennial river located in the central highlands, south-west, and western regions of Tasmania, Australia.
Olegas Truchanas was a Lithuanian-Australian conservationist and nature photographer.
The Wilderness Society is an Australian, community-based, not-for-profit non-governmental environmental advocacy organisation.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability.
Gunns Limited was a major forestry enterprise located in Tasmania, Australia. It had operations in forest management, woodchipping, sawmilling and veneer production. The company was placed into liquidation in March 2013.
Margaret Ann Putt is a former Australian politician and parliamentary leader of the Tasmanian Greens.
The Campaign to Save Native Forests (W.A.) (CSNF) was the name of a grassroots organisation which grew from a campaign started in Perth, Western Australia, in 1975, as a response to the development of a woodchipping industry in the south-west jarrah and karri forests of Western Australia. The Manjimup woodchip project aroused significant levels of protest in Perth and the South West region out of public concern that inadequate measures had been made for conservation alongside exploitation of the south west hardwood forests.
Woodchipping is the act and industry of chipping wood for pulp. Timber is converted to woodchips and sold, primarily, for paper manufacture. In Australia, woodchips are produced by clearcutting or thinning of native forests or plantations. In other parts of the world, forestry practices such as short rotation coppice are the usual methods adopted.
Port Davey is an oceanic inlet located in the south west region of Tasmania, Australia.
Melaleuca is a remote locality in the south-west area of Tasmania, Australia.
The Gordon Splits is a notable section of gorges of the Gordon River, located in South West Tasmania, Australia. The once impassable gorges are situated on the lower Gordon River in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The splits has also been an important location of focus within the larger environmental campaign for wilderness preservation in South West Tasmania.
The Styx River is a perennial river in the centre of southern Tasmania, Australia. The upper reaches of the Styx River are in the Tasmanian Wilderness, south west of Maydena. The river is a popular destination for river-rafting and canoeing.
The Nadgee Nature Reserve is a protected nature reserve that is located in the far south coast region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The 20,671-hectare (51,080-acre) reserve is situated to the immediate south of Beowa National Park. Its southern border is bounded by the Black-Allan Line that marks the straight–line border between New South Wales and Victoria, where it abuts Croajingolong National Park.
The Bathurst Channel is a narrow offshore stretch of water that links Port Davey with Bathurst Harbour in the South West region of Tasmania, Australia. The Bathurst Channel is contained within the Port Davey/Bathurst Harbour Marine Nature Reserve, and the Southwest National Park, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
Penelope Figgis is an Australian environmentalist, activist, and political scientist. Since 2005 she has been the Vice Chair for Oceania of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.
South West Tasmania Action Committee was a group started after the flooding of the lake in South West Tasmania known as Lake Pedder to create the Gordon Dam catchment.
William J. Lines is an Australian author with a focus on the environment and environmental politics.
The Helsham Inquiry was a 1987 commission of inquiry under the Australian government into the management of the Tasmanian forests and the incorporation of these areas into the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. It was directed by New South Wales judge Michael Helsham and supported by the government of Bob Hawke.
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