ACTION ALERT

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Gabon, Africa: Pristine Rainforest Threatened by French Company

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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5/27/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

The most important ecological core area of the primeval Ipassa-

Mingouli forest in Gabon, Central Africa is being logged with a

vengeance. Please respond to Rainforest Action Network's request for

letters to the company doing the damage.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Pristine Gabonese rainforest threatened by French logging

company

Source: Rainforest Action Network

http://www.ran.org/ran/info_center/aa/gabon.html

Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source

Date: May 1999

On the equator, in Gabon, Central Africa, there is a primeval rain

forest, the Ipassa-Mingouli, of unsurpassing glamour: a breathtaking

amphitheatre of waterfalls and cataracts on the wild Ivindo river,

called "Ivindo Wonders" by early explorers, with gorillas,

chimpanzees, mandrills and elephants patrolling the river banks.

This paradise is now under threat by a French logging (tree cutting)

company which, after making a written agreement with the European

Union and IUCN (the world conservation union) to save this wild

paradise, has instead started heavy industrial logging right in the

core area. (You can read a recent CNN report about this at

http://cnn.com/EARTH/9704/08/eco.warrior/index.html). The governments

of Gabon, France and Italy all support the written agreement that was

made by the logger, Rougier. In spite of this, the ruthless Rougier

logging company has gone right ahead to plunder this jewel of nature

as fast as they can, endangering the local population and making it

doubtful that the forest animals can survive. Rougier is cutting down

the biggest trees, thereby destroying the ecological balance of this

pristine forest. It will never be as it was before: they are erasing

forever its prehistoric charm.

Furthermore, their bull-dozed logging roads criss-cross the forest and

poachers are using these roads to kill elephants, gorillas and

chimpanzees for the meat which is a delicacy in the nearby villages.

And this meat is spreading terrible new epidemics - AIDS and the Ebola

disease. These epidemics, if not controlled, threaten the entire

planet as the movie and book "The Hot Zone" have illustrated. The

giant, imposing trees hundreds of years old which are the glories of

this million-year-old rain forest have been defending humanity from

Ebola and possibly other even more terrible diseases. But now, sadly,

these giants are being increasingly destroyed, their habitat

plundered, by saws and bulldozers of Rougier Group. Scientists have

demonstrated that there is a close relation between industrial logging

and outbreaks of Ebola. And all this havoc is being wreaked in order

to provide parquet floors and tropical-wood furniture for some

privileged people.

The Rougier logging and consequent poaching by professional poachers

is also threatening the traditional and inoffensive hunting ways of

"Pygmy" and other local tribes, whose small game is disappearing. So

these local people are unable to find their traditional prey and

therefore are in danger of death from hunger as well as disease. We

need everybody to get involved: to address letters, e-mail and actions

to the protagonists in this drama.

What You Can Do!

Please write to the President of Groupe Rougier and let him know how

you feel about Gabon's forests. You can email these letters to

info@rougier.fr

Jacques Rougier

Rougier Group

Paris, France

info@rougier.fr

Greetings Mr. Rougier,

I am very disturbed about reports coming from the pristine Ipassa-

Mingouli area of Gabon. It seems that you have decided to start

cutting in the heart of the conservation zone. Your personal decision

is threatening the very existence of local indigenous cultures as well

as endangered wildlife such as chimpanzees, gorillas and forest

elephants. This is absolutely unacceptable.

I demand that you stop such activities immediately. I encourage the

recipient of this message to be sure that it reaches Mr. Rougier. He

should be aware that Rainforest Action Network and a large

international constituency of environmental and human rights groups is

taking a particularly intense interest in Rougier's destructive role

in the Ipassa/Mingouli region of Gabon.

Please let me know immediately how Rougier plans to care for, rather

than destroy this incredibly diverse and inexpressibly valuable

ecosystem.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

This action alert was provided by the Ipassa-Mingouli Project

http://www.dna.it/ecochallenge/home.htm

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