GREENPEACE BOARDS RUSSIAN TIMBER CARGO OUTSIDE JAPAN'S TERRITORIAL WATERS

4 July 2000 SEA OF JAPAN, 38degrees 19N, 127degrees 24E Outside Japanese territorial waters

  Today at 08:00 Greenpeace for the second consecutive day boarded the timber cargo vessel the 'Byisk'. Five Greenpeace activists, citizens from Russia, Japan, UK, Israel and Australia, are occupying the vessels cargo as it continues on its course into Japanese territory. They are prepared to stay aboard the 'Byisk' for some time.

The cargo of the 'Byisk' is 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. On July 3 Greenpeace activists boarded the 'Byisk' in international waters between Russia and Japan. Five activists displayed banners and occupied the logs stacked high on deck until the 'Byisk' altered its course and announced it would return to Russia with its cargo. Later, the vessel altered course again to continue to the port of Toyama Shinko in NW Japan. The Rainbow Warrior has been pursuing the vessel since yesterday.

"Greenpeace urges the Japanese government to confirm that the timber on board this shipment is not illegal," said Ayako Sekine, Greenpeace Japan spokesperson from the deck of the timber vessel. "The plight of the world's ancient forests is in the hands of governments who choose to allow the import of products from this criminal activity."

Illegal and destructive logging is threatening the future of the world's last remaining ancient forests. Yet while the G8 group of leading nations have made public commitments (1) to promote sustainable forest management, the problems of illegal production and trade of wood and wood products continue to grow.

Estimates for the amount of logs produced or traded illegally world-wide range from 20 to 80 percent. A report released on Friday in Russia (2) highlights the findings of Greenpeace investigative teams that illegal logging is rampant in the Primorsky region forests. In Brazil, illegal logging has become the norm rather than the exception. Despite their public commitments to address the problem of illegal logging,G-8 countries such as Japan, UK and Germany, are major importers of timber products from regions where illegal production and trade of forest products is still commonplace.

In the-run up to its 2000 Summit in Okinawa on July 21-22, Greenpeace is demanding that G8 governments:
· DO NOT buy illegal timber products
· DO NOT fund forest destruction through aid for unsustainable forestry
· DO NOT let G8 countries be markets for illegal timber
· DO buy wood products from sustainable certified forests
· DO provide urgent assistance to forest countries to tackle illegal logging
· DO increase the capacity for monitoring and transparency throughout the production and transport of wood and wood products globally.

According to Michelle Sheather, Greenpeace International spokesperson on the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace will continue to highlight the irregular practises for the import of timber and timber products by G8 countries, until positive action is made on the promises from G8 leaders.

(1) G8 commitment from Denver, 20-22 June, 1997: "Forests continue to be destroyed and degraded at alarming rates in many parts of the world. To reverse this trend, we call upon all countries to make a long term political commitment to achieve sustainable forests management practices world-wide and to join us in the immediate implementation of proposals put forward by the Inter-governmental Panel on Forests. We have discussed in Denver and have agreed to support a practical Action Program that includes eliminating illegal logging."

(2) Click here for an Executive summary of the report 'Forest felling activities in Russia'.