GREENPEACE URGES CARDBOARD MANUFACTURERS TO "STOP BUYING ANCIENT FOREST DESTRUCTION”

27 October 2000

PARIS, FRANCE -- Greenpeace activists from France, Germany, Belgium, and Canada delivered a slice from a 1158-year old Douglas Fir tree from British Columbia (Canada) to the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO) meeting in Paris today, an activity that is part of a global campaign to protect the world’s remaining ancient forests. The international environmental group displayed a banner asking FEFCO’s members to “stop buying ancient forest destruction”.

FEFCO member companies buy approximately US$30 million of kraftliner paper mainly originating from logging in the ancient forests of Canada. They purchase it from the Canadian company Eurocan, a branch of West Fraser Timber. West Fraser logs over 6-million cubic metres of wood a year, almost all of which is in ancient forests, including in pristine rainforests valleys in British Columbia, and over 90 per cent of their logging is done through clearcutting. Despite their destructive record, West Fraser has repeatedly refused to participate in a solution process for the Canadian rainforests involving environmental groups and other logging companies such as Weyerhaeuser.

“West Fraser is one of the dinosaurs of the paper industry,” said Greg Higgs, spokesperson for Greenpeace International. “As long as FEFCO continues to buy from West Fraser, they will be contributing to the destruction of some of the world’s last remaining ancient forests.”

Recently, some European cardboard companies have begun to take steps to end their participation in ancient forest destruction. For example, Pacapime, one of the largest cardboard manufacturers in Belgium, recently committed to make no further purchases from West Fraser due to its destructive logging practices.

Other European companies use this kraftliner to produce boxes for various products including fruit, vegetables, electronic equipment, and automotive parts.

While environmental groups and some logging companies are working to develop conservation-based solutions in the Canadian coastal rainforest, other industry bodies are actively working to undermine this initiative. Yesterday in British Columbia, a strategy document written by the logging industry lobby bodies, the Council of Forest Industries and the Forest Alliance of B.C., revealed the extent of an anti- environmental, multi-million-dollar campaign aimed at discrediting environmental groups and promoting status quo industrial logging in international markets. Copies of the strategy paper can be downloaded from Sierra Legal Defense Fund, an environmental law firm that obtained the leaked copy www.sierralegal.org.