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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Canada
Politicians, Loggers Lash Out at Greenpeace
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss
Forest Conservation
11/24/98
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by EE
Greenpeace
appears to have gotten under the skin of the Canadian
timber
interests with their relentless efforts to protect Canadian
temperate
rainforests, including organizing consumer boycotts. Some
people
just don't get it-that short term profit is not above
ecological
necessity. The industry and apologists'
strident rhetoric
suggests
that the boycott is starting to bite, and that the writing
may be
on the wall for marketing industrially harvested old-growth
timber
from British Columbia (and ultimately elsewhere).
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Canada Politicians, Loggers Lash out at
Greenpeace
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1998, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: November 24, 1998
OTTAWA,
Nov 24 (Reuters) - Accusing Canada's government of not doing
enough to
protect the forestry industry from a Greenpeace boycott,
the
official opposition party in parliament teamed up with the
country's
largest forest union on Tuesday to battle the environmental
group.
"Canada's
forest industry needs access to markets and that access to
markets
is being severely constrained by the activities of radical
groups
who are funded from outside the country," declared Reform
Member
of Parliament John Duncan.
"Our
federal government has to wake up, recognise what is going on,
and
(fight for us) in the international community," said Duncan, who
represents
a constituency in the heart of British Columbia's forest
industry.
Greenpeace
and other environmental groups have waged an international
public
relations campaign against western Canada's timber industry,
including
a resounding call for a boycott by European and U.S.
consumers.
Greenpeace contends that wildlife and watersheds are being
destroyed
in British Columbia by unrestrained logging practices such
as
clear-cutting, in which great tracts of forests are cut down
indiscriminately
without regard to the age or species of the trees.
The
group wants a moratorium on the remaining intact rainforest
valleys.
Greenpeace
activists have boarded ships carrying Canadian forest
products
to ports in Britain and the United States, stalling the
offloading
of cargo. They have also organised protests across
Britain,
Belgium and Germany against Canadian lumber and products.
Environmental
groups have also protested outside 85 Home Depot Inc
(HD.N)
stores in the United States which they said sold products cut
from a
British Columbia coastal area that Greenpeace has dubbed "The
Great
Bear Rainforest."
Darrel
Wong, President of the Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers of
Canada,
said the environmentalist's actions have hurt the industry
and
forced thousands of workers off the job.
"(Foreign
importers) have said that they're losing interest in
purchasing
B.C. forest products, specifically because they really
don't
need the headache (of the protests)," Wong said.
He said
Greenpeace is ignoring the progress made by Canadian industry
to
become more responsible.
Canada's
opposition Reform Party said the government should impose
stiffer
penalties for illegal acts committed by the
environmentalists,
including forced repayment of money lost because of
blockades
of legally forested products.
They
also want Canada to pressure the United States and Germany to
revoke
Greenpeace's charitable tax status so that these governments
do not
aiding the group's actions.
Foreign
Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy said Canada is already
countering
the Greenpeace boycott campaign abroad.
"Canada
has undertaken a campaign to promote the interests of
Canadian
foresters in Europe. We are certainly in the position of
providing
the good, strong evidence that Canada does follow proper
forestry
practices," Axworthy said.
However,
out-campaigning Greenpeace appears an uphill battle. After
the
Reform party said it would hold a press conference on the issue,
Greenpeace
sent a nine-page letter to Reform Party leader Preston
Manning,
three federal ministers, several forestry company executives
and all
members of parliament from British Columbia to counter
Reform's
position.
Following
the press conference, a Greenpeace campaign director
tracked
down reporters who attended the conference to offer the
group's
comment.
Duncan
shrugged off the counter attack.
"I
know they're very good at public relations. I mean, that's the
business
they're in," he said.
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