Vancouver-Raw Log Export Protest

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

>> ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS BLOCK UNPROCESSED TIMBER SHIPMENT 


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                    GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>> ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS BLOCK UNPROCESSED TIMBER SHIPMENT 
   UNION SAYS STOP EXPORTING JOBS
 
    Raw exports equal job exports, groups and Pulp union say
 
VANCOUVER, B.C., Tuesday, 21 March, 1995 (GP) Greenpeace and the
Forests Action Network today blocked the loading of unprocessed
timber onto the ship Royal Venture headed for Japan. The Royal
Venture is scheduled to leave for Japan within the next few days,
loaded with 12" by 24" squared-off logs (or cants), taking with
it B.C. jobs.
 
Forty protesters from the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada
(PPWC), the Forest Action Network, Friends of Clayoquot Sound and
Greenpeace blocked the loading of the Royal Venture, carrying
placards that read "Stop exporting B.C. jobs" and "Add Value, Not
Volume". Two Greenpeace zodiacs filled with protestors blocked
the bow of the ship, while one activist chained himself to the
bowline.
 
All four groups advocate the creation of value-added industries
that make B.C. timber into finished products in British Columbia.
 
 
"It's outrageous that workers in B.C. are being laid off while
unprocessed wood is shipped out of this country," said Stan
Shewaga, President of the PPWC. "We don't have to choose between
jobs and trees: if our industry were managed properly, we'd have
plenty of both."
 
The creation of value-added industries would employ more B.C.
workers per number of B.C. trees logged. According to the
government's Select Standing Committee on Forest, Energy, Mines
and Petroleum Resources, through value-added industries B.C.
could employ 4.55 more people per one sawmill worker currently
milling 500,000 board feet of lumber. At present, B.C. employs
fewer people per tree cut than most industrialised forestry
jurisdictions throughout in the world, including the United
States and Scandinavia.
 
"We need to add value to our economy by processing our trees in
B.C.," said Greenpeace forests campaigner Tamara Stark. "Unless
the obsolete practice of corporate cut and run is stopped, in 50
years B.C. will have no forest and no jobs for forest workers." 
 
The PPWC, F.A.N., Friends of Clayoquot Sound and Greenpeace call
on B.C.'s logging companies to stop exporting raw materials and
support B.C. workers by investing in value-added industries. 
 
ENDS
 
 
For more information please contact:
Stan Shewaga, PPWC President 731-1909
Greenpeace Vancouver: 253-7701
Forest Action Network:  251-2473
phone on site (for all groups): 328-6527