As the Group of Eight major nations kick off three days of summit meetings in Okinawa today, environmentalists are mounting an effort to steal a slice of the limelight. Forestry issues -- namely illegal logging and timber subsidies -- are emotionally charged topics that groups are aggressively campaigning on to get the G-8 leaders' and the world's attention.

On the eve of the summit Thursday, two citizens groups slammed the G-8 nations for failing to adequately carry out a forest-action program agreed upon in 1998.

They also demanded that the nations, especially Japan, Canada and the United States, eradicate logging subsidies that destroy precious forests and drain government coffers.

"Two years ago, at the 1998 summit in Birmingham (England), the G-8 governments committed to an action plan for the world's forests," said Nigel Sizer, director of forest policy at the Washington, D.C.-based World Resources Institute.

But an interim report on the action plan that will likely be presented in Okinawa highlights the dithering of G-8 nations on forest protection policy, said Sizer. Likewise, Greenpeace condemned the lack of action apparent in the report at a press conference.

Especially problematic are G-8 nation subsidies -- both domestic and to developing countries, Sizer said in an interview with The Japan Times prior to the press conference.

"We at WRI have long been very concerned about the subsidies that governments pay to the logging industries that promote activities in areas of forest that should be conserved, " Sizer said.

"These subsidies are clearly damaging to the environment, to those forests and also to the economy, because they don't really promote anything in terms of long-term economic or social benefits." The action program committed the G-8 nations to promote domestic and international forest-monitoring programs, information exchanges, creation of protected areas and a crackdown on the illegal timber trade.

But the G-8 leaders have failed to touch upon logging subsidies, something Sizer calls a "glaring omission from the action plan." "This is a very important issue which they refuse to mention in their discussions, let alone make some commitments to address. They don't even acknowledge that it exists."

As a group, the G-8 is guilty of not clamping down on illegal logging or actively working to preserve precious stands of forest, Sizer said, adding that

Japan, the U.S. and Canada stand out as especially egregious hypocrites.

To put pressure on these three countries in particular, WRI and Greenpeace released a report Thursday that outlines the magnitude of the subsidy issue.

Of the "three big offenders," as Sizer calls them, Canada forks over upwards of

$2 billion in "perverse subsidies" a year to its domestic timber industry, subsidies that "lose money and harm the environment." Roughly 90 percent of Canada's timber production comes from old-growth forests, the report says.

Likewise, the U.S. is cutting down important stands of forest in Alaska and losing millions of dollars to do it, Sizer said.

Japan did not escape the criticism either as the report condemns its subsidies that continue to go to laying roads through the Yanbaru area -- a lush subtropical forest in northern Okinawa Island. The most controversial logging road is a 36-km highway that cuts directly through the forest and was 80 percent paid for by the central government, the report says.

But these subsidies are complex and obscure, Sizer said.

"That is why our major recommendation is that the G-8 acknowledge that this problem exists and separately create an independent commission to systematically analyze the extent, scale and impact of these subsidies." Sizer said he expects the heads of state to address forestry issues and is especially anticipating comments on illegal logging.

On a positive note, Sizer said that retailers in the U.S. have pledged not to buy illegally logged timber.

"I expect that a similar phenomenon will occur in Japan. I predict retailers will start to make similar commitments within two or three years to differentiate themselves in the marketplace." Error: Unable to read footer file.