ACTION ALERT

***********************************************

WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Intolerable: Old Growth Toilet Paper

***********************************************

Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

11/13/97

OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE

Rainforest Action Network reports on the atrocious practice of making

throw-away consumer products from old growth forests, including

producing toilet paper! It is absolutely essential that the vast

majority of remaining old-growth forest be preserved. Old-growth

forests that must be harvested because of pressing local subsistence

and development needs should be put under certified forest management

coupled to adjacent large preservation areas. Failure to do so, and

quickly, dooms the World to a vastly diminished biological legacy.

Appeals are made for letters to Kimberley-Clark, calling for them to

halt purchase of pulp derived from old-growth.

g.b.

*******************************

RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Intolerable: Old Growth Toilet Paper

Source: Rainforest Action Network

Status: Distribute freely for non-commercial use & with accreditation

Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997

RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK

Action Alert #132

Intolerable: Old Growth Toilet Paper

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY we no longer rely on whales as a source of

oil. We no longer feast on buffalo tongue, and find it reprehensible

to kill elephants for ivory. But with a new millennium dawning, old

growth forests worldwide are still being cut down and processed into a

wide array of consumer products. Pulped old growth forests go into

toilet paper and cellulose products, including rayon, camera film and

cigarette filters. Building products include 2x4's and decorative

molding. The companies that profit from these products will only

change their ways when the public makes it clear that destroying old

growth forests is no longer acceptable.

Kimberly-Clark, for instance, sells Kleenex, Huggies, Viva towels and

Scott tissue. Their advertising campaigns are soft and cuddly; a key

point of their public relations happy talk is their claim that they

are not involved in rainforest destruction anywhere. However, to make

its disposable paper products, Kimberly-Clark buys raw materials that

were ripped from old growth forests around the world.

Kimberly-Clark's Brazilian pulp supplier, Aracruz Cellulose, is

logging in Brazil's Atlantic rainforest, one of the most endangered

tropical rainforests. Even by conservative estimates, less than 8% of

this forest is left. Aracruz has replaced the previously cut old

growth forest with massive eucalyptus plantations, and recent reports

indicate cutting is still going on in the old growth rainforest.

The Aracruz plantations were once the ancestral homeland of the

Guarani and Tupinikim Indians. The Brazilian Constitution guarantees

indigenous land rights, and the government's agencies have determined

that the land in question rightfully belongs to the Guarani and

Tupinikim. However, Aracruz is putting heavy pressure on the

government to downsize the claim. Indigenous groups and human rights

organizations fear the precedent this could set for other tribes

throughout Brazil.

Kimberly-Clark also purchases raw materials from British Columbia, and

the logging companies there clear old growth forest faster than almost

any other region in the world. Almost 100 percent of the logging in

B.C. is clearcutting old growth forests. Even in Canada's globally

rare temperate rainforests, only 19 percent of the large rainforest

valleys have survived intact to this day, and half of these areas are

slated for logging within the next five years.

Budding hope of reform in B.C.'s logging industry recently has been

dashed. Leaked government documents show that the rate of logging and

the practice of clearcutting old growth forests have continued

unabated behind a facade of environmental reform. In classic

bureaucratic newspeak, 45% of B.C. has secretly been designated to

become "low biodiversity" zones and another 45% as "intermediate." In

plain English, 90% of B.C. will become a sacrifice zone. Even the

leaked documents acknowledge that "the risk of native species being

unable to survive will be relatively high."

At least half of the old growth logging in B.C. supplies the U.S.

market demand for cheap lumber and wood pulp. In order to stop the

destruction of old growth forests, companies like Kimberly-Clark must

stop using old growth wood to manufacture their products.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Kimberly-Clark's products represent one example of the rainforest

destruction and human rights abuses that are incurred in manufacturing

American consumer goods. While we can't fight every product one by

one, we can demand that no products be made from the planet's last

remaining old growth forests. Let's start with Kimberly-Clark. Here

is a sample letter:

Mr. Wayne Sanders, CEO

Kimberly-Clark World Headquarters

P.O. Box 619100

Dallas, TX 75261

Dear Mr. Sanders,

In this day and age, it is absolutely unacceptable to be using pulp

purchased from companies that cut down old growth forests. Using old

growth pulp to make tissue paper is barbaric-like killing elephants

for their ivory. I ask you to stop using old growth pulp, and to

establish a company policy to that effect so your customers can know

that buying your products does not cause the destruction of the

Earth's last remaining old growth forests.

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

This document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non-

commercial use only. Recipients should seek permission from the

source for reprinting. All efforts are made to provide accurate,

timely pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all

information rests with the reader. Check out our Gaia Forest

Conservation Archives at URL= http://forests.org/

Networked by Ecological Enterprises, gbarry@forests.org