Blockade Escalates as Interfor is Granted Injuction
6/12/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Jun 12, 1997 by nobody@xs2.greenpeace.org in igc:gp.press
Subject: BC Logging Blockade Escalates as Interfor is Granted Injunction
DAY SIX: BLOCKADE ESCALATES AS INTERFOR IS GRANTED AN INJUNCTION
(ISTA, KING ISLAND, B.C.) Wednesday 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 Greenpeace ship the Moby Dick: 011-872-624-628-410
Greg Biggs, Forest Action Network: 250-799-5800
Tzeporah Berman, Greenpeace: 604-253-7701, 604-220-7701 (cell)
Nuxalk Nation House of Smayusta: 250-799-5376