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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Illegal
Amazon Logging Targeted
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
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Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
8/19/99
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by EE
Though
historically factors such as clearing rainforests for
agriculture
and grazing have been the primary cause of deforestation
in the
Amazon, increasingly the area is additionally threatened by
illegal
logging. Greenpeace intends to
highlight this fact over the
next
year. They state that "illegal
commercial loggers cut down 80
percent
of the trees that disappear from the rain forest (Amazon) each
year."
If such deforestation continues, Greenpeace estimates that in
80
years the Amazon rain forest would be wiped out on this basis alone
(never
mind climate change, fires and other habitat threats which are
also accelerating). The time is now to bear the costs to
conserve the
Amazon.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Illegal Amazon Logging Targeted
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: August 17, 1999
AMSTERDAM,
Netherlands (AP) -- The Amazon rain forest will be wiped
out in
80 years if multinational logging companies continue
deforestation
at the current rate, Greenpeace warned Tuesday in its
annual
report.
As part
of its Brazilian Amazon campaign, the environmental group said
it will
target multinational companies and illegal logging this year
to
prevent the destruction of the vast wild territory -- a forest the
size of
Western Europe.
Greenpeace
says illegal commercial loggers cut down 80 percent of the
trees
that disappear from the rain forest each year. Most of the cash
generated
from the sale of the lumber goes to foreign companies, the
group
says.
Greenpeace's
forest campaigners document deforestation and publish
details
of companies they say are responsible. The group says it will
use the
material to press for court action against illegal loggers.
In a
recent report, Greenpeace listed 17 Brazilian corporations,
either
partially or wholly owned by foreign companies, which it said
practice
illegal logging. A detailed report to be released this fall
will
list more than a dozen multinationals that Greenpeace will
recommend
the public boycott.
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