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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Buying
Destruction: A Report for Corporate Consumers of Forest Products
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Forest
Networking a Project of forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
10/10/99
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
In its
latest publication on forest issues, Buying Destruction,
Greenpeace
presents the findings of its most recent research into the
logging
industry's activities in the world's remaining ancient
forests. "Greenpeace is calling on all the
companies using wood and
paper
products to find out where their wood comes from and to end
their
role in forest destruction." The
report discusses current
threats
to ancient forests, outlines the difficulties in tracing the
origins
of forest products and concludes with details of more than
150
logging companies active in the production or trade of ancient
forest
products in Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Gabon, Guyana,
Indonesia,
Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Russia and
Suriname.
The
report can be ordered from: Greenpeace International,
Keizersgracht
176, 1016 DW Amsterdam, Netherlands Fax: ++ 31 20 523
6200
E-mail: forests.publications@ams.greenpeace.org . The report
is
available in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Japanese.
Summaries
of the report will also be available in Portuguese, German
and
Indonesian.
Following
is a news article from Papua New Guinea (PNG) which covers
the
release of the report from the perspective of PNG and the Solomon
Islands,
which are being decimated by massive unsustainable logging
by a
handful of companies.
g.b.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Asian loggers damned in Greenpeace report
Source: The Independent
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: October 7, 1999
A
REPORT released this week by non-governmental environment group
Greenpeace
has revealed massive dominance of unsustainable logging by
a few
Asian transnationals in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon
Islands. The report, "Buying Destruction: A
Greenpeace report for
corporate
consumers of forest products", profiles 150 logging and
wood-trading
companies active in the forests of PNG, Solomon Islands,
Brazil,
Guyana, Chile and Suriname, Cameroon and Gabon, Indonesia,
Canada
and Russia.
"These
top companies together log half of the total round wood
produced
annually by these nations. They have access to a forest area
of well
over 80,000,000 hectares - an area nearly three times the
size of
new Zealand," a statement from Greenpeace reads. According
to
Greenpeace, in PNG, Malaysian logger Rimbunan Hijau is estimated
to
control around half of the country's total timber production.
Rimbunan
Hijau is also present in Vanuatu and Solomon Islands,
Brazil,
Gabon and New Zealand. Malaysian interests own 96 per cent of
the concessions
in PNG. Another Malaysian company, WTK, has a
presence
in PNG, Brazil and Gabon. Greenpeace
says the report
estimates
that there is a remaining 17 million hectares of ancient
forest
in PNG and Solomon Islands. Of this,
over 60 per cent is
under
major threat. It says industrial logging and the expansion of
shifting
cultivation pose particular threats to Oceania's forests.
"This
information is alarming, particularly in light of recent
developments
in the South Pacific," says Greenpeace Pacific's Grant
Rosoman.
"While we have some good news with the reinstatement of high
log tax
levels in Papua New Guinea, we also have some bad, with the
go-ahead
for forest clearance for a palm oil project around Marovo
lagoon,
Solomon Islands by a Malaysian company," he says.
Mr
Rosoman said that through the report, "Buying Destruction",
Greenpeace
is calling on all the companies using wood and paper
products
to find out where their wood comes from and to end their
role in
forest destruction.
"Buying
Destruction urges corporate consumers of forest products to
stop
buying from suppliers whose practices contribute to ancient
forest
destruction, inform suppliers that their company will give
preference
to sustainable harvested products, and more towards
adapting
demand for wood to fit with the natural supply," he said.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non-
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use only. Recipients should seek
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source
for reprinting. All efforts are made to
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