VICTORY!
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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Canadian
Logger to Stop Clearcutting in Temperate Rainforest
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
6/11/98
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by EE
Following
are two items that cover the exciting announcement that
MacMillan
Bloedel will phase out clearcut logging in temperate
rainforests
in British Columbia, Canada. Additionally,
large
preserved
areas are to be established and remaining timber operations
will
move to certified standards. Rainforest
Action Network hopes
that
this is an interim step towards cessation of logging of any type
in
these priceless remaining old-growth forest ecosystems. As people
who
have been on this list for the past 5 years know, we have sent out
many
items relating to this struggle. It's a
pleasure to note this
major
positive movement. Congratulations to
all those who are laboring
to
protect these wonderful forests.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
ITEM #1
Title: MacMillan Bloedel to stop clear-cut logging
Source: Agence France-Presse
Status: Copyright, contact source for permission to
reprint
Date: June 11, 1998
VANCOUVER,
Canada June 10 (AFP) - Forestry giant MacMillan Bloedel
said
Wednesday it will completely phase out "clear-cut" logging in its
operations
in British Columbia forests.
Instead
the company will use more selective logging practices in
Canada's
west coast province, MacBlo president Tom Stevens said.
MacMillan
Bloedel and other forestry firms have come under intense
pressure
in recent years from environmental groups to abandon clear-
cut
logging, which consists in knocking down all trees and vegetation
on the
land to be logged.
"Some
of society's values are shifting," said Stevens, while denying
the
company was bowing to pressure.
The
environmental group Greenpeace has been organizing international
boycotts
of British Columbian wood products in Britain and Germany to
protest
the practice, especially in old-growth temperate rain forests.
Greenpeace
activist Karen Mahon gave Stevens a bottle of Dom Perignon
champagne
to celebrate the announcement.
"What
you have done today is take the first step down the right road
and we
want to congratulate you for that," Mahon said.
MacMillan
Bloedel is British Columbia's largest private-sector
employer.
But the company has been hit -- along with other forestry
companies
-- by high costs, slumping profits and declining demand from
Japan.
Since
the start of the year, the company has eliminated 2,700 jobs and
unloaded
its paper subsidiary for about 595 million dollars.
Stevens
also announced that 70 percent of rain forest land under
company
license would be preserved.
ITEM #2
Title: LOGGING GIANT'S GROUNDBREAKING FOREST PLAN
WINS KUDOS FROM
GREENS, CANADA'S LARGEST LOGGING
COMPANY TAKES IMPORTANT
STEP TOWARDS ENDING OLD GROWTH
LOGGING
Source: Rainforest Action Network
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to
source
Date: June 10, 1998
Press
contacts:
Mark
Westlund -- ranmedia@ran.org
Christopher
Hatch -- rainwood@ran.org
The end
to trade in old growth wood products is closer to reality
today
as Canada's largest timber company announces that it will end
its
contentious practice of clearcut logging in old growth forests.
MacMillan
Bloedel, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, also pledged
that it
will set aside its pristine old growth zones for scientific
study
as part of its new logging plans, and that it will seek
environmental
certification for its remaining logging operations.
However,
despite these progressive measures, the company has not yet
committed
to end all logging in old growth forests.
"MacMillan
Bloedel is taking courageous steps," said Rainforest Action
Network's
Campaigns Director Christopher Hatch, "and we expect the
rest of
British Columbia's timber industry to follow suit immediately
--
however, the battle will at last be over when the logging industry
transitions
out of the old growth business entirely."
MacMillan
Bloedel's president, Tom Stephens, told the company's annual
meeting
in April that many customers "don't want wood from old growth
clearcuts." His comments attest to the changing
attitudes and
heightened
awareness of the wood-buying public, and the extent to
which
Rainforest Action Network's campaign against old growth wood has
penetrated
the marketplace.
Rainforest
Action Network has run an aggressive advertising campaign
stigmatizing
old growth logging with the line:
"The oldest living
things
on Earth, or tomorrow's lawn furniture." With its coalition
partners,
RAN has staged high profile demonstrations, proposed
shareholder
resolutions, organized letter writing campaigns, and has
targeted
existing and potential customers and of old growth products
with
informational direct mail. The call to
end the trade in old
growth
wood products has met a warm reception at companies including
Kinko's,
3M, Mitsubishi Motor Sales America and Mitsubishi Electric
America.
Old
growth forests are the lungs of the planet.
They filter the air
we
breathe, absorb greenhouse gasses, and are important store houses
of
carbon, which moderates Earth's climate.
Logging these forests is
a major
factor contributing to global climate change.
Old growth
ecosystems
are destroyed to make plywood and cheap timber. Pulped old
growth
rainforests go into toilet paper and cellulose products,
including
rayon, camera film and cigarette filters.
Worldwide,
logging and other causes of deforestation have brought all
but
twenty percent of the planet's old growth forests to the brink of
extinction.
"Selling
old growth wood products is like killing elephants for ivory,
or
making ashtrays out of gorilla paws," adds RAN's Christopher Hatch:
"With
a new millennium dawning -- and with plenty of alternatives
already
on the market -- it's simply immoral to make consumer goods
out of
the world's last ancient trees, some as old as 2,000 years."
The
coalition of environmental groups behind the campaign to protect
BC's
coastal rainforest include RAN, Greenpeace, and Natural Resource
Defense
Council. Rainforest Action Network
works to protect the
Earth's
rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants
through
education, grassroots organizing and non-violent, direct
action.
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