WORLD'S LARGEST LOG BARGE OCCUPIED TO STOP
  RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION
Action against MacMillan Bloedel super-barge: activists locked on to the Haida Brave
For news of the action read the latest Press Release

3.5 min Real Audio file Interview with Karen Mahon, Greenpeace Forests campainer, speaking from the the mast of the Haida Brave which she is occupying with five other activists.

Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on all logging in the remaining pristine rainforest areas, an immediate end to clearcutting and roadbuilding in the forest and for full biological and cultural assessments.

Over 50% of rainforest valleys in the region have already been lost - most of the rest will be destroyed within 10 years unless action is taken now. The big logging companies like MacMillan Bloedel are chopping for profit with little regard for the permanent ecological and cultural devastation they are causing.

Greenpeace is taking direct action to halt the plundering and focus the world's attention on this destruction of our natural heritage before it's too late.

Greenpeace activists' first attempt to blockade the giant logging barges was on the shores of Haida GwaiiI, Queen Charlotte Islands on August 1st and 2nd:

"After hosing off Greenpeace activists yesterday with a with a strong spray from their barge's fire hose and cutting off a Greenpeace activist who was chained to the barge's ladder by using a gas-powered grinder, MacMillan Bloedel's employees aboard the world's largest log barge were forced to retreat into an inlet of the Queen Charlotte islands after being confronted by Haida natives.

The barge remains anchored today after a day-long blockade by Haida traditional war canoes and fishing boats. MacMillan Bloedel, the largest logging firm in Canada, remains unable to transport the clearcut temperate rainforest logs to southern British Columbia for processing and export to the U.S.

Haida activists currently maintain a vigil on the beach, waiting to see if MacBlo's barge will weigh anchor and attempt to sail to Vancouver with its load of old-growth cedar, hemlock and spruce logs. The Haida activists are protesting the logging giant's destruction of temperate rainforest on their islands, calling for a massive reduction in the amount of timber harvested and an overhaul in the way the timber concessions are granted by the government.

"The B.C. government and multinational corporations have decimated the majority of the old-growth rainforest of Haida Gwaii", said Ralph Stocker, Haida activist. "The Haida culture is based on and in the forests: without it, we go extinct. We must protect the remaining old-growth rainforests".

Late yesterday, eight Haida paddled a cedar war canoe into Masset Inlet in front of the village of Old Masset on Haida Gwaii. The First Nation activists brought the barge to a standstill after it had escaped from the Greenpeace Zodiac inflatables as the the Greenpeace crew members collected their colleagues who had been roughly deposited in the frigid northern waters by MacMillan Bloedel's employees. Three Greenpeace activists had boarded the barge Thursday morning, disrupting the loading of logs by chaining themselves to the barge's ladders and bowline before being hosed off.

Greenpeace is calling for a full moratorium on industrial activity in the remaining intact areas of temperate rainforest in Canada. Half of everything logged in British Columbia is exported to the U.S.

Follow the action through the regular Press releases