Greenpeace Protests Congress's Plans to Purchase Endangered
Timber
9/4/97
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Headline: Greenpeace Protests Congress's Plans to Purchase
Endangered Timber
Source: Reuters
Date: 9/4/97
Copyright: Reuters Limited 1997
Greenpeace Slams Brazil Congress over Rare Timber
BRASILIA - The environmental group Greenpeace criticized
Brazil's Congress on Wednesday over its plan to buy several
types of tropical timber threatened with extinction or at
risk from excessive logging.
"This purchase is immoral and ill-timed," said Greenpeace
spokesman Paulo Adario. "Just as the government and society
is trying to decide how to protect the rainforests,
Congress displays this kind of political insensitivity."
The lower house of Congress was due to receive bids on
Wednesday from timber companies interested in supplying 246
square feet (75 sqaure meters) of tropical hardwood,
Greenpeace said.
The timber, equivalent to two large truckloads, would be
used to replace furniture and large panels that adorn the
Brazilian parliament. The species included jacaranda, a
tree that has been logged to the point of extinction
and that is only found in a few protected areas of Brazil's
Atlantic Forest.
Also on the list were mahogany and virola. The Brazilian
government last year announced a moratorium on new permits
for logging of both those species.
A congressional official confirmed the purchase was going
ahead and said there was nothing irregular about it.
"We've invited timber companies to bid for the contract and
if they have the wood to sell then it must have been logged
legally," the official said.
Logging of tropical hardwoods is considered a major factor
behind destruction of the Amazon and other rainforests in
Brazil. A government report leaked earlier this year
suggested that 80 percent of timber from the Amazon was
felled illegally.