ACTIVISTS CONTINUE THEIR BLOCKADE OF CLEARCUT LOGGING OPERATION
Austria Begins Sixteenth Hour of Protest Vigil at Canadian Embassy

RODERICK ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA - 21 May 1997

Greenpeace activists continue their blockade of a clearcut logging operation in the Great Bear Rainforest. The RCMP have visited the site, but as yet, no arrests have been made.

Eight activists are currently locked on to two pieces of logging equipment operated by Western Forest Products ( Doman). The activists, from Canada, Germany and Austria, are supported by the crew of the Greenpeace vessel, the MV Moby Dick. In nearby Green Inlet, a pristine rainforest valley due to be clearcut by Western Forest Products later this summer, the team has built a mobile floating camp to maintain an ongoing presence in the rainforest.

Today marks a major escalation in Greenpeace's campaign to protect the Great Bear Rainforest, which stretches along British Columbia's mid-coast area, and contains the world's largest remaining intact areas of temperate rainforest in the world. In Vienna, Austria outside the Canadian Embassy, Greenpeace activists continue their 24-hour vigil to protest Canada's failure to protect an ecosystem of global ecological importance. The Austrian activists have hung banners from the embassy walls, urging the Canadian goverment to "Save your Rainforest."

And in Ottawa, Greenpeace, along with other concerned organizations, have launched a complaint under the North American Agreement on Environmental Co-operation. The complaint concerns the Canadian government's failure to enact Endangered Species Legislation. The Great Bear Rainforest contains a number of species that are in urgent need of protection under an Endangered Species Act.

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