GREENPEACE LAUNCHES DAWN RAID ON GERMANY’S LARGEST TIMBER PORT

Nordenham (Germany), 20th July 2000

At 06h00 am local time, 15 Greenpeace activists representing members of the European Union (EU) and Group of Eight (G8) nations, occupied the timber yard of the German port of Nordenham to blockade the transport of African wood out of the port. The targeted wood included over 400 African logs as well as lumber, which had been unloaded from the cargo vessel Aegis the day before.

The environmental activists have occupied two cranes preventing removal of the logs and have painted them with “ANCIENT FOREST CRIME” and “G8 DESTROYS ANCIENT FORESTS”. A banner reading “STOP AFRICAN RAINFOREST CRIME” has been hung from one of the cranes. Protesters are also sitting o the logs with banners reading “CRIME”. Greenpeace intends to continue the protest until the G8 agrees, during its forthcoming summit, to take appropriate measures to protect the ancient forests.

The action happened on the eve of the G8 summit, as Greenpeace further intensified its efforts to highlight the role of the G8 and European nations in driving the destruction of the world's remaining ancient forests. The cargo of the Aegis destined for Germany – around 3,000 cubic meters of logs and timber – included lumber and logs from Cameroon where almost all logging is destructive and illegal logging is widespread. Four of the Greenpeace activists had earlier occupied the Aegis itself for 89 hours as it unloaded more than 600 logs plus lumber in the port of Leixoes in Portugal.

Experts, including ecologists from the World Resources Institute (WRI), agree that logging activities throughout the Congo Basin are almost exclusively mining operations, causing damage to large areas of forest during the extraction of valuable timber species such as sapelli, moabi and okoumé. Moreover, in recent months a number of Government reports on the forest industry in Cameroon have revealed major illegalities in almost all concessions visited during government inspections in December 1999 and June 2000).

Companies fined for illegal activities during these investigations included subsidiaries of no less than four companies from G8 countries - Bolloré (SIBAF), Thanry (SAB, CFC and SEBC) and R Coron (EGTF) all from France, and the Italian Vasto Legno (SEFAC). Others include the Lebanese company SFH (Société Forestière Hazim), a company with a long history of violating forestry law, and the target of a further Greenpeace action in the Spanish port of Vilagarcia de Arosa last week.

The action in Nordenham follows a series of Greenpeace protests throughout Europe, in Russia and in Japan against the import logs and timber coming from illegal logging and trade operations in the last ancient forests around the world. These protests have highlighted the roles of both the forestry industry and importing nations in the ruthless destruction of the remaining ancient forests.

According to most recent figures from the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation), the G8 and EU nations were together responsible for 74 percent of the world's industrial wood imports in 1996 - accounting for almost 280 million of the 376 million cubic meters of wood products imported globally that year.

In the run up to the G8 summit in Okinawa, Japan, Greenpeace has been putting pressure on the G8 to live up to its earlier commitments on promoting sustainable forest management and combating the illegal production and trade of wood and wood products. During the 1998 summit in Birmingham, UK, the G8 presented its Action Programme on Forests in which member states committed to assisting in national forest programmes and other actions to promote sustainable forest management and establish protected forest areas. Yet effective action by G8 countries - or its EU observers - is yet to be seen.

As the G8 nations prepare to convene tomorrow in Okinawa, Greenpeace is calling on G8 and EU governments to stop their leading role in driving the illegal timber trade, and to actively promote the production of wood and wood products certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), without which it is not possible to guarantee that logging practices – whether legal or illegal – do not lead to ancient forest destruction .

“G8 governments promised that they would solve the problem of illegal logging three years ago, but the problem is just getting worse” said Greenpeace forest campaigner Tim Birch. “ The tropical timber industry promised us sustainable timber by the year 2000. This was a lie. The world’s remaining ancient forests are still being rapidly destroyed, while governments and industry do nothing. These institutions have a moral obligation to protect the world’s ancient forests, yet criminally logged timber from these forests continues to flood the international market. Meanwhile, the G8 and EU do nothing to stop it”.

Following a disappointing outcome from the G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting earlier this month, Greenpeace has contacted the German and other European and G8 governments, urging them to agree to an immediate moratorium on any industrial development in ancient forests until such developments are proven sustainable.

They are also calling on governments to: