Brazil Renews Mahogany Logging Ban To Help Halt Amazon Destruction
7/29/98
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Brazil Renews Mahogany Logging Ban To Help Halt Amazon
Destruction
Source: Rainforest Action Network
Status: Distribute freely with proper credit to source
Date: 7/29/98
Press Contacts:
Mark Westlund -- ranmedia@ran.org
Christopher Hatch -- chatch@ran.org
BRAZIL RENEWS MAHOGANY LOGGING BAN IN BID TO HALT AMAZON DESTRUCTION
GREENS CHALLENGE U.S. TO BAN IMPORT OF OLD GROWTH MAHOGANY WOOD AND
PRODUCTS
In a groundbreaking move towards saving the Amazon rainforest, the
Brazilian National Congress has extended its moratorium on new mahogany
logging for the next two years. The bill prolongs the logging moratorium
passed in 1996 which forbids new logging of mahogany, one of the most
lucrative but destructive industries in the world's rainforests.
"By extending its moratorium on new mahognay logging, Brazil has set a
high standard of environmental leadership," said RAN campaigns director
Christopher Hatch. "Now the United States must live up to this standard
and ban all imports of mahogany and other threatened old growth rainforest
wood products."
International trade in mahogany has been a major force driving the
destruction of the Amazon, and the U.S. is the world's single largest
importer of mahogany. Mahogany trees grow sporadically throughout the
forest, and mahogany loggers have cut more than 3,000 miles of roads into
intact forest regions, opening the way for colonization and deforestation.
Rainforest Action Network is calling on the Brazilian and U.S.
government to seek additional protection for bigleaf mahogany by listing
the species on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES). Being listed in the appendices of CITES places
curbs on the international trade in a species or product.
This same convention passed international trade regulations that have
protected elephants and gorillas from extinction.
Brazil stunned the international community in January when it published
long-awaited data based on satellite pictures that showed an area in the
Amazon five times the size of Connecticut - 23,259 square miles - had been
deforested between 1995 and 1997.
Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth's rainforests and
support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots
organizing, and non-violent direct action.