COURT GRANTS WESTERN FOREST PRODUCTS RIGHT TO CONTINUE CLEARCUTTING GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST

Vancouver, 28 May 1997

Today Western Forest Products (Doman Industries) gained an injunction against Greenpeace activists that it has sought since Friday, May 23 in the British Columbia Supreme Court.

The injunction seeks to remove the eight activists who have been locked on to logging equipment on Roderick Island, halting a Western Forest Products clearcutting operation in the area. The company has stated that it intends to continue its destructive clearcutting of the Great Bear Rainforest despite appeals by Greenpeace and a wide range of other social and environmental groups in B.C.

"We have successfully stopped the clearcutting of this incredible piece of our global heritage for more than a week now," said Greenpeace Forests Campaigner Tzeporah Berman from the site of the blockade. "According to Western Forest Products, we have already stopped 8,000 trees from being logged in just this one area."

"There will come a day when those who have fought to protect the last of the northern rainforests will be thought of as heroes, not criminals. But the wheels of justice grind slowly. We will continue working for this day." said Karen Mahon from the courthouse.

Through the continued presence of a floating base camp and the MV Moby Dick, Greenpeace will continue to bear witness to both the majesty and destruction of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Greenpeace is calling for an end to clearcutting, no new roads in the temperate rainforest and no logging in any of the remaining pristine rainforest valleys.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Steve Shallhorn, Vancouver office, +1 604 253 7701

cell phone: +1 416 451 9354

Karen Mahon, in court, cell phone +1 604 220 7701

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