Greenpeace activists chain selves to Russian lumber ship
Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse
December 3, 2001
WILHELMSHAVEN, Germany, Dec 3 - Greenpeace activists on Monday chained themselves to a Russian lumber ship in this northern German harbor in protest against the import of timber from ancient forests, the coast guard here said.
Authorities said several members of the environmentalist organization climbed aboard the Russian ship "Mekhanik Tyulenev" and chained themselves to a crane used to unload the lumber. Greenpeace said five of its activists were able to hang a banner reading "No ancient forest lumber to Germany" from two cranes.
The group also attempted to block the 80-meter-long (260-foot-long) ship from docking using three rubber dinghies but was stopped by the coast guard.
Greenpeace said in a statement the protest was aimed to prevent the delivery of the pine and fir timber from the five-million-hectare (12-million-acre) Dvinsky forest in northern Russia.
The organization said the logging industry was threatening the biodiversity in Dvinsky, one of Russia's last ancient forests.