The Last World's Last Ancient Forests Must Be Protected
4/6/98
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Title: The Last World's Last Ancient Forests Must Be Protected
Source: Greenpeace
Status: Distribute freely with proper credit to source
Date: 4/6/98
THE LAST ANCIENT FORESTS OF THE WORLD HAVE TO BE PROTECTED
Demand of "Alliance of ancient-forests-free industry"
Hamburg, 6th of April, 1998. The protection of the last ancient
forests of the world is one of the most urgent duties within the
conservation of the environment, as charged by Greenpeace on a
press conference in Hamburg today. Walter Homolka, Executive
Director of Greenpeace Germany, said: "Earth's primary forests
are irreplaceable due to their value as the treasure-chamber of
bio-diversity, its importance for the climate's balance and as
home for indigenous peoples."
Studies of the World Resource Institute in Washington revealed
that around 50% of all forests and 80% of all primary forests
are already destroyed. Today forests mainly consist of woods
poor in species and with a much lower ecological significance
than ancient forests. Industrial logging is still the main
threat by far to primary forests.
Nowadays rain forests of the temperate regions especially those
of the Canadian west coast are most endangered. Even in one of
the last untouched areas, the Great Bear Rainforest in British
Columbia, logging started recently. Greenpeace started an
international campaign to protect this unique region. In
connection with protests against logging in the area of the
Great Bear Rainforest, three Greenpeace-activist were sentenced
to 21 days imprisonment last week-end. Among them was 34-year
old Patricia Fromm from Germany.
"Prison sentences can not stop us to keep on fighting against
the destruction of the last primary forests. Although the
protection of forests was urgently demanded in Rio 1992 nothing
happened apart from countless discussions. Since the Rio-
Conference another 90 million hectares - an area twice as large
as Germany - were destroyed by logging or `slash and burn' or
transformed into low-species plantations. The threat to primary
forests does not allow further long discussions. For policy
remains idle, the market, i.e. companies and consumers, have to
put pressure on the logging industry and political decision-
makers", Walter Homolka said.
Greenpeace demands an "Alliance of `ancient-forests-free'
industry". To protect the Canadian rainforests the organization
for environmental protection recently conducted actions in
different countries and lobbied within countless negotiations
with representatives of the timber-, paper-, and pulp-industry.
Some big companies in the USA and Europe already declared to do
it without deliveries from those companies who clear-cut primary
forests in Canada. Among those are Xerox, 3M (USA), the
building-market chain Magnet (UK) and pulp-producer Lenzig AG
(Austria).
Greenpeace on the Internet at http://www.greenpeace.org