7 February 2001
Protesters target store doing business with known forest destroyer

Bangor, Maine — A coalition of student demonstrators in co-operation with Greenpeace protested in front of the do-it-yourself store WICKES in Bangor demanding that they immediately stop selling products from International Forest Products (Interfor).

Interfor is a logging company which clearcuts trees in the largest unprotected ancient temperate rainforest in the world. Some students were perched atop tall wooden structures, blocking entrances to the store.

"WICKES knows the atrocities that Interfor commits in the ancient temperate rainforest in British Columbia, Canada, and yet they still carry Interfor's products," said Mike Roselle, Ancient Forests Campaigner for Greenpeace. "Today's protest is part of a national grassroots uprising. Concerned citizens are doing everything in their power to expose both Interfor's highly destructive practices and the stores that refuse to stop selling their products."

Interfor's disregard for the environment is well known and documented. From 1995 to 1997, Interfor and its subsidiaries have been charged and penalized 136 times for violating British Columbia legislation, including several infractions of the Forest Practices Code.

"Companies who do business with Interfor need to answer to their customers for their own role in destroying our global treasures," said Rob Fish, a student demonstrator. "Customers have the right to know if the products they buy are fueling the destruction of our planet's last ancient forests."

According to the World Resources Institute, temperate rainforests are the most endangered forest type on Earth. Greenpeace is calling for a logging moratorium on all intact valleys and key ecological areas within the Great Bear Rainforest until the completion and adoption of a meaningful conservation and ecosystem-based management plan for the coastal rainforest. If logging is determined to be appropriate, Greenpeace maintains that forest products must come from well-managed forests that have been certified to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards or better.

Many retailers, including home furnishing giant IKEA, have already pledged to use only forest products that have been FSC-certified. Although many forestry companies operating in the Great Bear Rainforest are working with environmental organizations in British Columbia to protect highly contentious areas within the rainforest, Interfor walked away from negotiations and has resumed its logging plans. Since then, environmentalists have exposed the company's plans to log 18 pristine valleys and critically important areas of the Great Bear Rainforest in the next five years.

UPDATE: all nine activists were arrested but have been released on bail.

Tell Wickes & Lanoga: Stop Buying Forest Destruction!
Send a message to the CEO's of Wickes Lumber and Lanoga Inc.and tell them to stop contributing to this destruction by buying from Interfor and West Fraser!

READ MORE: Greenpeace Briefing - International Forest Products [An ADOBE document.]

For more information about Greenpeace's ancient forests campaign, email: guestforest@ams.greenpeace.org