Published by: World Tibet Network News, 96/06/05 23:00 GMT

SYDNEY, June 5 AAP - The Wilderness Society (TWS) today camped outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney to launch a campaign to protect Tibet from further enviromental damage.

Chanting "stop the ecocide" the society presented a list of 10 demands to the consulate as part of the national campaign, Endangered Tibet, launched to coincide with World Environment Day.

National spokeswoman for the TWS, Virginia Young, said the effects of environmental damage in Tibet also had repercussions for Australia.

"On World Environment Day we must take a broad perspective and not just focus on our local issues and I think it is a crucial time for launching the campaign for Tibet," Ms Young said.

"Everything that happens in Tibet has a great deal of effect on the rest of Asia and also to a large degree the rest of the world, including Australia."

Ms Young said seven of Asia's major rivers originated in Tibet and were now among the most silted in the world from deforestation in Tibet.

"Forty-seven per cent of the world's population relies on these rivers for their survival," she said.

Ms Young said TWS had set up action groups across Australia not only to encourage the public to lobby the Chinese government directly through consulates but to put pressure on the Australian government to take some action.

"We think there is a real role for the Australian government here to get involved and lead the way and try to protect the Tibetan environment," she said.

"This is, of course, a very new government and we'll certainly be seeking meetings with (Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander) Downer and (Environment Minister Robert) Hill to discuss what action the Australian government might be able to take."

Friends of the Earth (FOE) joined the Wilderness Society at the consulate to protest the Chinese nuclear test program.

FOE nuclear campaigner John Hallam also said it was time for the Australian government to take action.

"We are told a Chinese nuclear test is imminent, indeed we had expected it to have happened already," Mr Hallam said.

"I would suggest that we would be writing to Mr Downer to suggest to him that in the next few days he place the utmost diplomatic pressure on the Chinese not to test, if indeed, he has not already done so."