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Today, following three days of dramatic high-seas actions and an overnight occupation of a ship laden with Russian logs, six Greenpeace activists decided to release their chains and return to their action ship, the Rainbow Warrior. The activists stated that they had succeeded in pointing a spotlight on an ignored international crisis and were now going to take their protest to a higher level -- the Ministers and Heads of State of the G-8 countries.

“The point of our actions these last three days was not to get ourselves arrested but rather to force governments to arrest the forest criminals -- those corporations and corrupt governmental officials that are allowing the devastation of our last remaining ancient forests,” said Michelle Sheather, Greenpeace coordinator on board the Rainbow Warrior.

The cargo of the Russian ship 'Biysk' was spruce from the Primorsky region in Russia's Far East. Greenpeace has traced illegal logs to the port of Plastun where this ship loaded its cargo on July 2. Greenpeace conducted an undercover investigation and released a report(1) Friday in Russia which concluded that approximately 20% of Russian logs are harvested illegally.

Today, while the activists were chained to the logs onboard “Biysk”, Greenpeace held several meetings with local commercial and Japanese government officials. Greenpeace called the lack of commitment expressed in these meetings disappointing, and thus promise to continue their protests at the upcoming G-8 meetings. The G-8 countries account for 55% of world trade in forest products and have the greatest resources to bring to bear to counter rampant environmental crime. Since 1997, the G-8 has promised action to halt illegal logging but according to Greenpeace have actually done almost nothing. However, Japanese government officials have confirmed that the issue will be placed again on the agenda of the Okinawa summit later this month.

“So far the G-8 governments fiddle while our last ancient forests are literally burned or are slashed into ecological wastelands,” said Mikiko Fukuda, of Greenpeace Japan. “The Japanese government, as host of the G-8 summit, must take a leadership role in ensuring that for the first time we will see deeds from the G-8 and not just a lot of pretty words.”

This week's action in Japan to highlight the illegal Russian timber trade is part of a global campaign Greenpeace is carrying out to expose destruction of the last ancient forests, particularly highlighting illegal logging as a key threat. The Greenpeace Ship "Amazon Guardian" recently completed an illegal logging survey in the Amazon, and Greenpeace is also currently tracking cargos of suspected illegal operations in various European countries.