Indonesian Forest Crisis Over Old-Growth
10/3/97
OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
Following is additional coverage concerning the unprecedented crisis
in Indonesian forestry, where intensive rainforest destruction has
contributed to ecological collapse. With 22% of the world's old-
growth forests remaining, there is no reason to buy old-growth forest
products. Remaining virgin forests are threatened with similar
consequences should over intensive forest harvest continue. The
following is a Rainforest Action Network press release.
LIST NOTE:
Apologies for long absence. I have been in Papua New Guinea working
on a major new forest and conservation project with the World Bank.
There should not be another long break in news coverage. I will be
passing along more information on the Indonesian forest crisis
shortly.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 16:15:33 -0800
To: RAGS-RAP@ran.org
From: Mark Westlund
Subject: Borneo Crisis Over Old Growth
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
For immediate release, September 30, 1997
Press contact: Mark Westlund - 415/398-4404
MASSIVE FIRES IN BORNEO RAINFOREST
ILLUSTRATE NEED TO STOP OLD GROWTH LOGGING
RANDALL HAYES ASKS CONSUMERS NOT TO PURCHASE OLD GROWTH FOREST
PRODUCTS
"People are dying, South-East Asia is on fire, and America's natural
heritage is all but lost - and all this for cheap lumber and pulp." -
-
Randall Hayes
SAN FRANCISCO - Rainforest Action Network founder Randall Hayes is
calling for consumers to stop purchasing products made of old growth
trees. "There is no reason to support the environmentally
destructive commercial logging of old growth forests," said Hayes,
"especially when there are so many alternatives already on the
market."
The recent fires in Borneo underscore the need to take drastic
action. The Indonesian Government has admitted that the fires are
burning on commercial logging sites. Rainforests - once brimming
with life - are chopped down, the stumps burned, the native forests
replaced by tree farms. Last Friday an Indonesian airbus crashed,
visibility hampered by dense smoke from the forest fires, killing all
234 people on board.
Around the world, old growth forests are falling at an alarming rate.
Reports indicate that burning in the Amazon rainforest has increased
28 percent since 1996. In the ancient temperate rainforests of
British Columbia, a timber industry spokesman recently indicated that
more than 85 percent of the trees cut down are old growth.
Only 22 percent of the world's old growth forests remain intact; in
the United States, less than 4 percent of the old growth forests are
still standing.
Old growth forest products include plywood made of tropical hardwood,
most mahogany and teak products, and the majority of lumber coming
from British Columbia; pulped old growth forests go into toilet paper
and cellulose products, including rayon, camera film and cigarette
filters.
In response to Rainforest Action Network's Old Growth Wood Campaign,
hundreds of building industry professionals and home improvement
centers have begun to stop selling old growth products. Descriptive
labeling would further help consumers identify old growth products.