U.S. must protect Mahogany
12/20/96
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 11:27:46 -0800 (PST)
From: ranmedia@ran.org (Mark Westlund)
Subject: U.S. must protect Mahogany
Sender: rainforest@igc.org
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK -- EDITORIAL
The U.S. Must do its Part to Protect Threatened Mahogany Trees and
the Amazon Rainforest
by Randall Hayes
Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
Whenever we Americans buy a mahogany dining room set or bury our dead
in a mahogany casket, we are using our purchasing power to destroy
the Amazon rainforest, and the traditional lifestyles of the people
who live there. We are also encouraging the cutting down of a tree
species - namely, Amazon big-leaf mahogany - that has already been
over-harvested, threatening its viability as a species.
Over two-thirds of the timber shipped from the Amazon ends up in the
United States, making us by far the greatest consumer of this
threatened resource. Jose Lutzenberger, Brazil's former Minister
of the Environment, forcefully framed this issue in an open letter to
consumers that has been circulating among environmental groups this
holiday season: "By buying Brazilian timber you are threatening many
of the Amazon's indigenous [cultures] with extinction." The mahogany
trade is the most destructive of all.
Unfortunately for the rainforest, much of the remaining mahogany
grows on protected land - such as national parks and Indian reserves.
Despite this, pirate loggers continue to go after the timber. The
situation in Amazon has become so dire that Brazil's federal
government enacted a two-year moratorium on new mahogany logging
concessions. Bolivia, the leading mahogany exporting country,
announced December 18 that it is seeking international sanctions
limiting the trade.
Industrial countries around the world have reduced mahogany imports,
except for the United States, which takes more and more of the
valuable wood each year. Currently U.S. demand is so great that
mahogany logging in the Amazon has stepped up, overcompensating for
the drop-off in the international marketplace.
Clearly, the United States needs to do its part. On December 16,
1996, 137 leading U.S. environmental groups sent a letter to Vice
President Al Gore and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt,
calling for the U.S. government to propose setting limits on Amazon
big-leaf mahogany trade at an international convention to be held
next June in Zimbabwe. The Conference of Parties of the Convention
on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in previous
years, adopted international trade regulations that have protected
elephants and gorillas from extinction.
Environmental groups working on protecting Amazon mahogany include:
Audobon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense Fund,
Environmental Investigation Agency, Friends of the Earth USA,
Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action
Network, Rainforest Relief, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, and
Western Ancient Forests Campaign.
Gore and Babbitt must act quickly; to be considered for a CITES vote,
proposals must be submitted by January 10, 1997. There are
precedents for CITES protection: both Caribbean and Pacific Coast
mahogany are already on the list. When he was a senator, Gore
supported listing Amazon big-leaf mahogany on the CITES roster.
Secretary Babbitt once posed the following challenge to the American
people: " [is it] possible to generate the same protectiveness for
trees in a rainforest [as for elephant ivory] remains to be seen.
Now that Gore and Babbitt are in the White House, we hope for
decisive action.
A CITES listing would still permit international mahogany trade, but
would require scientists to confirm that a shipment has not caused
damage to the rainforest before it was allowed into the marketplace.
We individual Americans need to do all we can to make sure that
mahogany trees get all the protection possible. We need to make
responsible consumer choices - and political choices as well.
Scientists call the rainforests 'the lungs of the planet,' but these
vital organs are everywhere under attack by an aggressive strain of
cancer: namely, human greed. The Earth is sick, and the patient's
days are few. There is little time left to save the rainforest
ecosystem and the people who live within it. A CITES listing for the
Amazon's big-leaf mahogany would go a long way towards setting things
right.