British Colombia's Three Stooges Promote Boycott of B.C. Lumber
6/18/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997
Subject: Ista update, and response to "3 Stooges"
Status: RO
Hi all!
Please find attached our response to recent comments made by government and
industry leaders, who criticized our demands for a drastic change in
forestry policy.
Following the response, please find a press release regarding our blockade
at Ista (Fog Creek), which still continues. For more information regarding
the blockade, please check out our website at : http://www.fanweb.org
Comments and concerns are, of course, welcome, as are greetings to the
folks (STILL in the rain) on the front lines.
Be well,
Dayna @
FAN Bella Coola
BC's THREE STOOGES PROMOTE BOYCOTT OF BC LUMBER
"Glen Clark, Jack Munro and Patrick Moore, three stooges for BCs forest
industry, are mouthing off again. Their comedy act would be laughable if
it wasn't endangering the jobs and forests of BC. People in BC, and
increasingly in market countries, are sick of hearing the same old bs and
want real change in how wood is harvested," said FAN spokesperson Robin
Green.
The government and industry have only themselves to blame for the boycott
of BC's forest industry. In the words of Liberal MLA Christy Clark ,"I
think you have to expect this because people are frustrated because the
premier's lied to them."
European environmentalists who call for change in BC forests are
representing public opinion and a growing awareness by corporate
purchasers. "If BC wants to remain a leader in the world lumber market it
needs to respond to what the market wants. Customers in Europe and
increasingly in the US are sick of industry lies. They are telling us
that they will not buy wood products that come from clearcuts," said Theo
Hopkins of FAN UK .
"The solution to the war in the woods is for communities to establish local
control of the forests, initiate ecological planning for their community
forests and keep the wood in the communities for value added production.
With more jobs produced with less wood, BC would both guarantee permanent
jobs and forest protection, by building a permanent market for its
eco-certified wood products", said Simon Waters, director of BC's
TREES-Temperate Rainforest Environmental Education Society.
Patrick Moore proudly boasts for the forest industry that it will log only
7% of the Mid Coast forest district. He forgets to mention that this is
exactly 100% of the operable timber in the district. It is exactly this
kind of deceitfulness that has caused BC to lose respect in the marketplace
In the Bella Coola Valley, only nine members of the Nuxalk Nation work in
the forest industry, while each day we watch logging trucks haul timber to
the water.
This is just one of far too many examples of how Interfor and other
corporate logging outfits ship tens of thousands of jobs out of BC's
communities and tens of thousands of value added jobs across the border
each year to the US, Japan and Europe.
The three stooges should take their direction from the majority of BC
residents, who amoung other things, oppose clearcutting and want to see an
effective endangered species act.
The solution you will never hear from these industry stooges is to take
forest tenure away from the corporations that are ravaging the forests AND
the economy. As long as BC's forest industry is dominated by big business,
which monopolises market share and keeps wood from small value added
businesses, BC will have the world's lowest employment per 1,000 m3 and
trouble in the market place.
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DAY SIX: BLOCKADE ESCALATES AS INTERFOR IS GRANTED AN INJUNCTION
ISTA, KING ISLAND, NUXALK TERRITORY. 11 June 1997
Today individuals from the Nuxalk Nation and environmental groups
expanded the blockade of clearcutting operations on King Island. Two people
(one Nuxalk and one Belgian) are currently perched on a tripod 30 feet
above a logging road, while two others (one German and one Australian) are
locked onto one of International Forest Products' grapple yarders.An
additional 56 people continue to block the main access road to the logging
site.
Today's expansion follows the Supreme Court of British Columbia
granting Interfor a civil court injunction and enforcement order that
allows the RCMP to physically remove the 60 protestors, who have been
blocking Interfor's logging operation since last Friday.Greenpeace intends
to appeal the decision.
"My mother has been arrested for protecting Ista. My grandfather was
arrested too," said Colette Schooner, a 16 year old Nuxalk youth. "Now I am
here for the youth and future generations to stop the clearcutting of this
sacred forest."
Ista is a rainforest valley that is spiritually important to the
Nuxalk; it is a place, according to Nuxalk creation story, where the first
woman descended to earth. Interfor has already clearcut three swaths of
rainforests on Ista and has plans for seven more clearcuts within the next
three years.
"The rainforests of Ista and many other valleys in the Great Bear
Rainforest are paying dearly at the hands of the logging industry and the
B.C. government." said Gavin Edwards of the Forest Action Network.
"Opposition to the pillage is growing in British Columbia and in the market
place."
Yesterday the Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition announced that it has
written to 5,000 of the largest paper and lumber buyers in the United
States, asking them not to purchase products from the Canadian Rainforest.
"Increasingly the world community is unwilling to buy into rainforest
destruction," said Tamara Stark of Greenpeace Canada. "We are absolutely
convinced that when the world knows the true costs of products coming out
of this rainforest, they will make the ethical decision and use their
purchasing power to protect the last of the world's ancient temperate
rainforests."
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Members of the environmental groups and the Nuxalk Nation on site, via
the ship, the Moby Dick: 011-872-624-628-410
Greg Higgs, Forest Action Network: 250-799-5800
Tzeporah Berman, Greenpeace: 604-220-7701 (cell)
Nuxalk Nation House of Smayusta: 250-799-5376
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F O R E S T A C T I O N N E T W O R K
Box 625, Bella Coola BC, Canada, V0T 1C0
TEL (250) 799-5800
FAX (250) 799-5830
EMAIL fanbc@envirolink.org
http://www.fanweb.org
CAMPAIGNING TO SAVE THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST
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(mail sent to fan@alternatives.com is now forwarded to
fanbc@envirolink.org)