Rainforest Wood
8/27/96
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
rainfor.genera: 147.0
Topic: Rainforest Wood
Written 7:33 PM Aug 27, 1996 by relief in cdp:rainfor.general
From: Rainforest Relief
Tim Keating, Rainforest Relief, 908/842-6030
OCEAN CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO REJECT RAINFOREST WOOD FOR THIS YEAR'S
BOARDWALK RECONSTRUCTION
TOWN ALSO CALLS FOR TROPICAL FORESTRY CONFERENCE
OCEAN CITY, NJ. The City Council of Ocean City voted August 22 to
reject the four bids pending for supplying the town with tropical
rainforest wood for the decking and understructure for a block of
boardwalk reconstruction.
Local and regional opposition had created controversy over the use of
the wood and eventually environmentalists and local townspeople
convinced the administration to reject it.
Rainforest Relief, based in Red Bank, New Jersey, lead the opposition
to the wood last year. This year, in addition, local residents formed
another group called Friends of the Rainforest (FOR) to oppose the
wood.
"This is clearly a victory for the rainforests," said Tim Keating,
Director of Rainforest Relief, based in Red Bank, New Jersey, the
organization that opposed the town's use of the wood,"and we applaud
the town for it. We were unable to stop the use of this wood for last
year's repairs," he continued, "but this year, foresight prevailed."
The town had placed a requirement in this year's bid calling for
rainforest wood that carries "independent certification" as having
been harvested sustainably. "The documentation regarding source of
lumber and certification of proper forest management submitted by the
four bidders did not meet the intent of the specifications," said
Ocean City Public Works Director George Savastano in a press release
prior to the vote. "Based on the investigation performed, the City is
not reasonable assured that the proposed sources of lumber are
following acceptable forest management practices."
The requirement of certification was hard-won, according to Curtis
Baker, an Ocean City resident and member of FOR. There was no such
requirement in last year's bid.
"Once the requirement was in, the administration would have been
foolish to accept any bids not meeting it," said Keating.
In addition to rejecting the bids, the approved resolution calls for
the installation of a test area of TriMax recycled plastic lumber and
for convening a tropical forestry conference in the town within six
months. The conference was a point of contention with many speakers
from the public at Thursday's Council meeting.
The fear is that only industry representatives will be able to
attend, unless the town is willing to pay for travel.
"If the conference is as unbalanced as the towns initial
investigation, then we are against it," said Keating. "If they bring
in all sides, including representatives of the indigenous peoples
most affected by logging in Brazil and Guyana, then we can support
it.
People, this campaign has really caught the attention of the IWPA,
the association of wood importers. Suppliers finally came out in the
press with their disinformation campaign, most of which was directly
from IWPA propaganda, as well as attempts to smear me personally and
Rainforest Relief in general. Obviously, this conference has been
suggested by the IWPA, as they have done such things in the past, and
been able to manipulate the information so that they can then use it
to sell more wood. Once any environmental group is represented, they
become party to the "consensus" and are then used by the industry.
We need all the support we can get to keep in their faces. Please
email me with suggestions on attendees for the conference and how we
might fund getting them there. If it looks as though this thing will
not be represented by those most affected, we will boycott it and
demonstrate in front of it.
For Earth,
Tim Keating