RAINFOREST BEARS DELIVER MESSAGE TO CEOs OF LOGGING COMPANIES

RAINFOREST BEARS DELIVER MESSAGE TO CEOs OF LOGGING COMPANIES
Stop clearcutting bear habitat, environmentalists demand
VANCOUVER, Canada - Monday, 14 April, 1997
Today more than sixty Grizzly, Black and Spirit Bears protested the ongoing logging of their rainforest homes at the corporate headquarters of International Forest Products, Western Forest Products and MacMillan Bloedel. The three logging giants are responsible for 50 per cent of all logging in Canada's rainforest, causing the destruction of critical bear habitat.
Today the bears delivered eviction notices to the logging companies asking them to leave the rainforest, and carried signs that read "Clearcutting kills rainforest bears", while sounds of chainsaws and bear growls accompanied the march. Grizzly bears are already listed as vulnerable to extinction by the federal and provincial governments. The rare white Spirit bear is similarly threatened, due to planned logging in much of its territory.
"Habitat destruction is the leading cause of extinction, and yet these companies continue to destroy the rainforest these bears and hundreds of other species call home," said Gavin Edwards of Forest Action Network.
The logging companies plan to log or build roads into virtually all the remaining old-growth rainforest valleys within the next 10 years, including much of the best remaining rainforest bear habitat in North America.
"The survival of Canada's rainforest bears is at stake," said Karen Mahon of Greenpeace. "In order to protect the bears and the other rainforest species we are demanding a moratorium on logging in the remaining pristine rainforest valleys."
The protest is the first public demonstration since last week's activist training that was sponsored by five B.C. environmental groups: Forest Action Network, People's Action for Threatened Habitat, Friends of Clayoquot Sound, Bear Watch and Greenpeace.
"What we do in the next five years may well determine whether Grizzlies and Spirit Bears continue to roam Canada's rainforest in the future," said Diana Wilson of Bear Watch.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
In Victoria: Tzeporah Berman or Greg McDade by cellphone at +1 (0)604 220-7701.
In the afternoon in Vancouver Tzeporah Berman +1 (0)604 253-7701 or Greg McDade (604) 685-5618.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Bears can serve as an "umbrella" species for many of the other plants and animals which share their rainforest habitat. What this means is that, because bears are the largest and widest ranging of rainforest species, if enough wilderness is conserved to preserve healthy populations of bears, there is a good chance of protecting healthy populations of many other species as well.