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G-8 ADOPTS GREENPEACE DEMAND TO FIGHT ILLEGAL LOGGING BY TACKLING EXPORT PRACTICES AND PROCUREMENT POLICIES

23 July 2000 Okinawa

Greenpeace welcomes the G- 8 Heads of Government's endorsement of sustainable forest management, and particularly their commitment to examine how best they can combat illegal logging, including export and procurement practices stated in their Communique today . The G-8 heads of state have finally adopted some of Greenpeaceís demands by recognising that export and purchasing of illegally harvested timber must be tackled. In last week's CommuniquÈ by the G-8 Foreign Ministers, those two important issues for which G-8 countries have a special responsibility were not mentioned.

"We do welcome the G-8 statement, however, we do not want to see more paper and talk, but real commitment in terms of capacity building in timber export countries, assistance with monitoring, and domestic trade policies," said Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace. "Ancient forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate and all these nice words will do nothing unless followed by effective action."

Greenpeace protests around the world over the past weeks have shown that something can and must be done now to stop illegal and destructive logging of the worldís last ancient forests. We will continue raising the issue of illegal and destructive logging until we see effective domestic action from the G-8.

Although the will to support indigenous and local communities to practice sustainable forest management is a worthy goal of G-8 governments, this intention adds nothing new to international commitments. It is a long-standing obligation by the international community as a whole. Since 1993, the Convention on Biological Diversity requires special protection and support of indigenous and local communities who are conserving biological diversity, which includes ecosystem-based forest management. Now as G-8 countries officially announce their intent Greenpeace hopes they may actually turn those commitments into action.

Action on domestic policies that encourage illegal logging elsewhere is long overdue. "A green procurement policy is one measure to combat illegal logging and it is the one every government can easily adopt. G-8 countries seem to recognise this now. Unfortunately, they lack decisiveness, as they only want to 'examine' instead of committing themselves to only buy from FSC or other certified sources. One wonders how long they still want to wait to adopt measures instead of just talking about them," added Kaiser.

However positive the new G-8 statement is on illegal and destructive logging and procurement policies, lacking is the will to abolish subsidies that harm forests. The latest WRI report states that the destruction of the last ancient forests is subsidised by governments of the G-8 with billions of US dollars.

GREENPEACE FORCES CANADIAN TIMBER SHIP TO TURN AROUND

23 July 2000 Brake (Germany) / Amsterdam

As the G8 summit drew to a close today in Japan, Greenpeace continued its campaign to protect the worldís remaining ancient forests by forcing the Hong-Kong- flagged timber ship Saga Horizon to turn around and head back towards the North Sea. The 60,000-tonne cargo carrier was carrying thousands of tonnes of sawn timber and pulp from Canada's endangered rainforests to European ports, including lumber from the Canadian logging giant International Forest Products (Interfor).

The Saga Horizon was attempting to dock in the port of Brake (Germany), in order to unload sawn timber and pulp from British Columbia (Canada) when Greenpeace intervened. Six Greenpeace activists chained themselves to fenders at the quayside, and eight inflatables blockaded access to the quay to prevent the Saga Horizon from berthing. As the Saga attempted to go alongside the quay, despite the dangers to the environmental protesters, Greenpeace captain John Castle warned the cargo vessel that it would be held responsible for any injury to the activists.

Earlier on, as the Saga approached the German port, two Greenpeace climbers had boarded the vessel and hung banners reading "Canadian forests crime" in German and "G8: you are destroying ancient forests". While the G8 Summit ended earlier today in Okinawa, with the Heads of Government acknowledging in their statement the severity of the problem of destructive and illegal logging in the world's remaining ancient forests , Greenpeace continues to call for real action and not just more words.

"The cargo of the Saga Horizon represents exactly the kind of destruction that G8 countries, like Germany and Canada, must stop", said Greg Higgs, Greenpeace Forest campaigner. "The cargo included a significant quantity of western red cedar from the Canadian timber company Interfor, one of the largest destroyers of ancient forests. Companies like Interfor continue to commit environmental vandalism on a gigantic scale by logging in the last remaining ancient rainforests of British Columbia. They are supported by the Canadian Government, which allows this crime to take place. Canada, as a member of the G8, has once again turned its back on the world's ancient forests and it is left to Greenpeace to protect them".

Interfor cuts three and a half million cubic metres of temperate rainforest per year, largely through clearcuts of up to 60 hectares - the size of around 90 soccer pitches. Despite concerns over its environmental impact, clearcutting remains the dominant harvesting method in Canada.

Earlier this year, 400 independent international scientists stated that industrial clearcut logging should be stopped in most of the temperate rainforests where Interfor logs. The area includes pristine valleys of Canada's temperate rainforest, which are home to some of the last wild salmon as well as grizzly bears and the world's only population of the rare white kermode bear. For the last year, Greenpeace and other environmental groups have been working to establish a moratorium on logging in intact rainforest areas in Canada, and currently four major logging corporations are engaging in the process. Unfortunately, Interfor has left this process and is continuing with its plan to clearcut pristine rainforest in British Columbia.

Today's action follows a series of Greenpeace protests throughout Europe, the Amazon, Russia and Japan against the import of logs and timber coming from illegal and destructive timber 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.

The G8 Governments should stop subsidizing ancient forest destruction and only forest products certified according to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or an equivalent body should enter the global market . According to Greenpeace, non-sustainable logging practices should be outlawed and in addition, there should be a complete export ban on companies found to be logging illegally.