Amazon Updates
4 October 2001
Greenpeace activists protest illegal and destructive logging
in the heart of the Amazon
 |
Manaus, Brazil - A team of 25 Greenpeace activists invaded
a Chinese plywood factory, Compensa, to expose its contribution
to illegal and destructive logging in the Amazon. Some activists
hung a banner at the company site saying "Amazon Crime",
while other activists painted logs and plywood products
with "Crime".
|
A six meter long chainsaw was also inflated in front of
the company's main gate and the factory roof was painted with
the words "O crime não compensa", which means
crime doesn't pay. |
 |
Compensa is an Amazon logging company which owns 16,000 hectares
of rainforest in Amazonas state. According to records Compensa
delivered to IBAMA (the Brazilian federal environment agency charged
with monitoring illegal logging) last year, 72.2 percent of the
wood used in the factory came from third party sources involved
in the direct deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. This is
the removal of all the trees in a forest in order to convert the
land for other uses such as agriculture.
Greenpeace Amazon Campaign Coordinator Paulo Adario says
Compensa continues to operate above the law with no regard
for whether the wood it uses is from legal and sustainable
sources. "The Brazilian government does not have adequate
resources to monitor these companies, so Greenpeace is here
today to protest and demand that the Chinese group guarantees
that the wood it uses is both legal and sustainable,"
said Adario. |
 |
In a report by the Brazilian Secretariat of Strategic Issues,
IBAMA estimated that 80 percent of deforestation in the Amazon
is illegal.
Compensa was fined once in 1997, and twice in 1999 for being
in possession of illegal logs. One of their traditional log suppliers,
the Batista family, was fined eight times between 1997 and 1999
for illegal logging. In April 2001, local authorities acting on
information supplied by Greenpeace seized 2,100 cubic metres of
illegal wood, part of it was destined for Compensa.
 |
But these are only the crimes that have been uncovered.
IBAMA is so under-resourced that it relies on only one agent
to enforce the law in an area of 40,000 square kilometers
(an area larger than Taiwan) in Amazonas state where Compensa
operates. |
Compensa's plywood factory consumes as much as 30,000 cubic metres
of ancient forest a year, 90 percent of which is exported, mainly
to the Caribbean and to the US.
|
"The destruction of the Amazon rainforest is being
fuelled by investments from a Chinese owned logging company
and the ever-increasing demand for plywood," said Greenpeace
China forest campaigner Leon Ko.
"The ongoing destruction of the world's largest rainforest
is a global problem, and requires global action by world
governments in order to ensure the survival of the Amazon
and the worlds ancient forests," said Ko.
After today's action, the saw mill manager agreed to meet
with Greenpeace to discuss our demands.
|
Greenpeace
campaigner Marcelo speaking with the mill manager. |
Greenpeace is calling on Compensa to stop buying timber from
deforestation, stop buying illegally logged timber, and sign a
'Terms of Adjustment of Conduct' contract with the federal government.
This agreement, when finalized, will commit Compensa to ensuring
that all timber that they use is legal within one year. Greenpeace
also wants the company to ensure that within four years they buy
only wood that has been eco-certified to Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC) standards.
In addition, Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium, globally,
on logging and other industrial activities in all large areas
of ancient forests, until measures are adopted to ensure that
timber is produced and traded in a legally and ecologically responsible
way, and for governments to create a global ancient forest fund
of $15 billion annually to fund these measures.
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