GREENPEACE AGAIN BLOCKADES WORLD'S LARGEST LOG BARGE TO PROTEST RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION

calls for a moratorium on logging in pristine rainforest areas and a 50 per cent reduction in the rate of cut.

Howe Sound British Columbia August 8th, 1996

Today at dawn, activists deployed from the Greenpeace ship the Moby Dick blockaded the Haida Brave, the world's largest log barge, stopping it from dumping its load of rainforest logs at Howe Sound.

Owned by MacMillan Bloedel, the Haida Brave and its sister ship, the Haida Monarch, are used to transport logs clearcut from the temperate rainforests to mills in southern British Columbia. The activists used zodiacs to board the barge and locked themselves onto it. Others attached themselves to the barge's crane towers with banners that read, 'MacMillan Bloedel, #1 Rainforest Destroyer', and 'Save Canada's Rainforests'.

"People were outraged when the news got out that the Amazon rainforests were being destroyed, yet 85% of the Brazilian Amazon still stands. In Canada the bulldozers are moving faster than public awareness -- yet we have already lost over 50% of our rainforest valleys," said Tzeporah Berman of Greenpeace International.

Today's blockade follows a series of actions last week when Greenpeace and Haida First Nation activists blockaded the Haida Brave to prevent it from removing a load of rainforest logs from Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands). Greenpeace is vowing to stop the barge for as long as possible.

The Haida Brave and Haida Monarch travel the BC coast two to three times per week and on each trip carry the equivalent of 400 loaded logging trucks.

Greenpeace forest campaigner Karen Mahon chained herself to the barge saying, "Unless we take action now, most of the remaining pristine rainforest valleys will be gone within 10 years. The current 12 per cent protection target ensures that companies like MacMillan Bloedel will be allowed to destroy the majority of Canada's ancient rainforests."

Canada's rainforest stretches from south of Vancouver along the west coast to the Alaskan border. Currently only 5.9 per cent of the rainforest is protected. The government is currently embarking on a new management plan (through the LRMP process) for the Coastal Rainforest zone.

The BC State of the Environment Reporting Office released a report on July 16 stating that one in 10 plant and vertebrate species in BC are under threat of extinction. Logging is cited as one of the primary causes of species decline.

Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on all logging in the remaining pristine rainforest areas, an immediate end to all clearcutting and road building in the rainforest and for full biological and cultural assessments.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT::

Karen Mahon, currently occupying the Haida Brave, cell phone:

Tzeporah Berman on the Moby Dick at: 329 2991

Tamara Stark at Greenpeace Vancouver at: 253-7701