16 February 2001
Greenpeace boards ship with pulp from Canadian ancient forests

Livorno, Italy - A team of 40 Greenpeace activists boarded the Norwegian flagged vessel MV "Star Harmonia", while it was entering the harbour of Livorno today. The ship was said to be carrying several thousand tonnes of pulp from the companies Norske Skog and Canfor, both major buyers of Interfor wood extracted from British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest.

Four swimmers placed themselves in front of the ship to prevent it from docking while others opened a banner: DO NOT DESTROY THE ANCIENT FORESTS. Other activists chained themselves to the buoys.

"Italy is the fourth largest pulp importer from British Columbia, with annual imports for 191 million dollars," said Sergio Baffoni from Greenpeace Italy. "This pulp is destined for Italian paper mills producing goods such as paper tissues and toilet paper. We are literally flushing these last temperate rainforest down the toilet.. Greenpeace urges the Italian industry to stop using pulp which causes the destruction of ancient forests."

Ninety five per cent of Interfor's (International Forest Products) operations include large-scale clearcutting of the last ancient forests of Canada, such as the Great Bear Rainforest.

Last May, Interfor, together with another logging company, West Fraser, walked away from landmark negotiations on protecting the Great Bear Rainforest, and broke the moratorium on logging in intact areas. (1)

The Great Bear Rainforest is home to many threatened species. A unique habitat for black tailed deer, grey wolves, grizzly bears and a rare snow-white variation of the black bear called the Kermode or "Spirit Bear".

Thanks to licences sold decades ago for just a few dollars, a small number of loggingcompanies are destroying one of the most extensive areas of rainforest remaining in the world, and its ecosystem. Greenpeace has revealed that about 93 per cent of timber supplied by this region is obtained through industrial "clearcutting" because it is fast, cheap and requires less labour. In many fragile rainforests this figure is as high as 97 per cent.

This process destroys the entire ecosystem of immense areas, at times more than 100 hectares of land.

Additional news today:
Greenpeace demands Hong Kong and China to stop buying rainforest destruction

Notes:
1. In 2000 a number of B.C. forestry companies, grouped under the 'Coast Forest Conservation Initiative' (CFCI) began discussions with Greenpeace and others environmental organisations, and agreed a "truce" period in the conflict over forestry in BC's coast and in that framework began a negotiation on the future of forest practices.

2. The Japanese government recently made a historic announcement by stating that they are going to eliminate illegal logging by setting rules at the importing side. The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Matsuoka, said at a press conference held February 13 that, "as a consumer country", we should not "help" environmental destruction.

In July 2000, following an extended Greenpeace campaign with 26 protest actions around the world, the heads of government at the G-8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan, agreed to "… examine how best we can combat illegal logging, including export and procurement practices."

In 1996, the countries which now make up the G8, along with all the rest of the EU countries, were responsible for 74 per cent of the world's imports of wood and wood products, accounting for almost 280 million of the 376 million cubic metres of wood products imported globally that year. Clearly, these powerful importing countries are of profound significance in terms of driving demand for wood production throughout the world. Japan plays a big role in world wood products trade. It imported 73 million cubic metres of wood products in 1998, a substantial part of this from British Columbia's last coastal rainforests. The Japanese government's decision can have a significant impact in stopping illegal and destructive logging in the world's last remaining ancient forests.

3. Greenpeace has launched an international cyber-campaign, calling on volunteers to help track down forest products that have been logged in the Great Bear Rainforest on Canada's West Coast. People all over the world are being asked to track down wood products that have been clearcut logged from Canada's rainforest by International Forest Products (Interfor) and West Fraser Timber, visit the CyberSleuth site to downloading the form and information that will aide in tracking these rainforest destroyers.

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

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