US Wood Imports Hasten Orangutan Extinction
From Environmental Investigation Agency
January 4, 2001
Washington DC, Jan 4, 2001: The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is stepping up its campaign to eliminate US wood imports illegally sourced from the Indonesian rainforests which provide the last refuge of the orangutan. Fewer than 25,000 orangutans - one of humankind's closest relatives - remain on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra where illegal logging is rife. Large volumes of Indonesian ramin, a rare tree species, are imported annually into the US after illegally felling in Indonesia's national parks. The hardwood is manufactured into furniture parts, dowels and broom handles and sold to the public by home improvement stores.
EIA, a non profit environmental group, is compiling chain of custody dossiers which document the movement of illegally felled logs via falsified legal documents into American markets. Last August Lowe's Companies Inc, the world's second largest home improvement retailer, banned ramin dowels from its stores under a new timber procurement policy. We intend to lobby other retailers and state and federal government agencies across the US to follow suit.
EIA's unique undercover work in exposing and publicizing illegal logging in Indonesia's supposedly protected national parks received primetime media coverage last Wednesday when it was highlighted on CBS's 60 Minutes II. The program used EIA footage of illegal logging of ramin, possibly bound for US markets. It also interviewed EIA investigator Faith Doherty who was kidnapped and brutally beaten in Borneo last year by employees of a timber baron involved in illegal logging in Tanjung Puting National Park.
In the past ten years, Indonesia's orangutan population has declined by 50%, principally as a result of forest loss through logging. Unlike their African cousins, gorillas and chimpanzees, orangutans are highly dependent upon trees for food, nests and mobility. They also breed slowly.
"We cannot save the orangutan without cutting off the flow of illegally felled wood from Indonesia's national parks into the United States and other industrialized nations", said Allan Thornton, EIA President. "Wood procurement policies by US government agencies and major companies will largely determine whether the orangutan and many other endangered species survive or become extinct."
If you would like further information about EIA's US wood imports campaign, our investigative work in Indonesia's national parks or Faith Doherty's ordeal and subsequent meeting last July with Indonesia's president, please contact our Washington DC office at 1-202-483-6621.
Alternatively, email us at eiagency@email.msn.com Further details of the Environmental Investigation Agency's (EIA's) forest campaign can be found on www.ecocrimes.org, For more information about the 60 Minutes II program you can visit the CBS website at www.cbs.com
ENDS
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email:EIAgency@email.msn.com
EDITOR'S NOTES:
1. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is a non-profit environmental organization with offices in Washington, DC and London, England. Set up in 1984, EIA works to expose environmental crimes including illegal trade in endangered or threatened species and illegal trade in timber and ozone-depleting substances.
2. Indonesia contains 10% of the world's remaining tropical forests. Over 70% of its original forest cover has been lost.
3. The World Bank estimates that over 1.5 million hectares of forest are lost every year. At current rates, Indonesia's forests will be gone in two decades.
4. Indonesia has the longest list of threatened species in the world, including the orangutan, Sumatran tiger, Sumatran rhino, clouded leopard, sun bear and Asian elephant.
5. Around 60 million people in Indonesia depend on the forests for their livelihood.
6. Lowe's home improvement retail chain, based in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, is the second national hardware retailer to limit sales of woods from endangered forests. Home Depot of Atlanta made a similar announcement in 1999.
7. Studies show that some 60% of Americans would buy and use sustainably sourced products but would like retailers to make it easy for them.