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GREENPEACE OCCUPIES MASSIVE CANADIAN LOG BARGE TO PROTEST B.C. RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION
Safety Cove, British Columbia, 24 June 1997
As Prime Minister Jean Chretien prepares to address the United Nations General Special Session on the Environment, Greenpeace activists have occupied one of the world's largest log barges on Canada's west coast to highlight the ongoing destruction of the Great Bear Rainforest.
The occupation, by a six-member team, was launched from the vessel MV Arctic Sunrise. It comes as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is moving in to arrest 60members of the Nuxalk First Nation and environmentalists who have been blockading clearcut logging operations in another area of the Great Bear Rainforest for the past nineteen days. This action is being supported by the Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise.
Aboard the log barge, the Seaspan Rigger, activists have unfurled a 50 by 30 foot banner reading "Don't Buy Rainforest Destruction---Greenpeace. The barge is 397 feet long and 88 feet wide carries the equivalent of 400 truckloads of timber covering an area equal to 56 football fields. The Seaspan rigger is used to bring old growth rainforest trees, such red cedar and Hemlock for minimal processing before export to Asia, Europe and the United States. Greenpeace is calling on consumers in Europe and the United States to phase out their consumption of old-growth rainforest products.(1)
"We have occupied this barge to bring the world's attention to the daily destruction of this irreplaceable rainforest." said Greenpeace campaigner Matthew Bramley from aboard the barge.
The Great Bear Rainforest, which stretches along British Columbia's mid-coast, contains some the world's last large intact areas of temperate rainforest. Satellite mapping shows that half of world's temperate rainforests have been destroyed; the majority of what remains is in Alaska, British Columbia and Chile. British Columbia is clearcutting its portion at a rate of over two hundred hectares a day. This rate is estimated to be thirty times greater than that of Alaska.
"Canada presents itself as an environmental leader and was the first country to sign the Biodiversity Convention in 1992," said Patrick Anderson, Greenpeace campaigner attending the U.N. meeting. "Yet four years later there are still no laws to protect endangered species in Canda and the devastation of its rainforests shows that Canada is an environmental hypocrite."
Later today Executive Director International Executive Director Thilo Bode will address the destruction of British Columbia's temperate rainforest in a speech before the U.N. Special Session. Greenpeace is calling for the full protection of the remaining intact rainforest valleys on Canada's west coast.
Editor's Note:
1) Current products made from British Columbia's old growth temperate rainforest include: newsprint, toilet paper, disposable products, garden furniture and window frames. back to text
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Steve Shallhorn, aboad the MV Arctic Sunrise: 011-872-1302-577;
Tzeporah Berman or Mary MacNutt: +1 604-253-7701, 604-220-7701 or 416-505-1792 (cell phones)
New York: Patrick Anderson or Holger Roenitz: + 1-212-686-8633 or 917-842-3837 (cell)