Log Barge Occupied to Protest Rainforest Destruction
6/25/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Jun 25, 1997
Subject: BC Log Barge Occupied to Protest Rainforest Destruction
On Eve of Jean Chretien's address to Earth Summit Two....
GREENPEACE OCCUPIES MASSIVE CANADIAN LOG BARGE TO PROTEST B.C.
RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION
Safety Cove, British Columbia- Canada June-24, 1997---As Prime
Minister Jean Chretien prepares to address the United Nations
General Special Session on the Environment, Greenpeace
activists have occupied one of the world's largest log barges
on Canada's west coast to highlight the ongoing destruction of
the Great Bear Rainforest.
The occupation, by a six-member team, was launched from the
vessel MV Arctic Sunrise. It comes as the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police is moving in to arrest 60 members of the Nuxalk
First Nation and environmentalists who have been blockading
clearcut logging operations in another area of the Great Bear
Rainforest for the past nineteen days. This action is being
supported by the Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise.
Aboard the log barge, the Seaspan Rigger, activists have
unfurled a 50 by 30 foot banner reading "Don't Buy Rainforest
Destruction---Greenpeace. The barge is 397 feet long and 88
feet wide carries the equivalent of 400 truckloads of timber
covering an area equal to 56 football fields. The Seaspan
rigger is used to bring old growth rainforest trees, such red
cedar and Hemlock for minimal processing before export to Asia,
Europe and the United States. Greenpeace is calling on
consumers in Europe and the United States to phase out their
consumption of old-growth rainforest products. (1)
"We have occupied this barge to bring the world's attention to
the daily destruction of this irreplaceable rainforest." said
Greenpeace campaigner Matthew Bramley from aboard the barge.
The Great Bear Rainforest, which stretches along British
Columbia's mid-coast, contains some the world's last large
intact areas of temperate rainforest. Satellite mapping shows
that half of world's temperate rainforests have been destroyed;
the majority of what remains is in Alaska, British Columbia and
Chile. British Columbia is clearcutting its portion at a rate
of over two hundred hectares a day. This rate is estimated to
be thirty times greater than that of Alaska.
"Canada presents itself as an environmental leader and was the
first country to sign the Biodiversity Convention in 1992,"
said Patrick Anderson, Greenpeace campaigner attending the U.N.
meeting. "Yet four years later there are still no laws to
protect endangered species in Canada and the devastation of its
rainforests shows that Canada is an environmental hypocrite."
Later today Executive Director International Executive Director
Thilo Bode will address the destruction of British Columbia's
temperate rainforest in a speech before the U.N. Special
Session. Greenpeace is calling for the full protection of the
remaining intact rainforest valleys on Canada's west coast.
Editor's Note:
1) Current products made from British Columbia's old growth
temperate rainforest include: newsprint, toilet paper,
disposable products, garden furniture and window frames.
For further information: Steve Shallhorn, aboard the MV Arctic
Sunrise: 011-872-1302-577;
Tzeporah Berman or Mary MacNutt: 604-253-7701, 604-220-7701 or
416-505-1792 (cell phones)
In New York: Patrick Anderson or Holger Roenitz:
1-212-686-8633 or 917-842-3837
(cell)