GREENPEACE CONTINUES BLOCKADE OF THE BARGE HAIDA BRAVE

Howe Sound British Columbia August 8th, 1996 - 6.00pm

Greenpeace activists currently blockading MacMillan Bloedel's log barge the Haida Brave are continuing their protest into the night.

Activists chained themselves to the Haida Brave at 5:30 this morning to protest rainforest destruction. Both the Haida Brave and the Haida Monarch transport clearcut ancient rainforest from the coast of B.C. to mills in the south of the province: each barge transports the equivalent of 400 loaded logging trucks. Approximately 25-million cubic metres of B.C.'s 73-million cubic metre Annual Allowable Cut is old-growth temperate rainforest.

Said Karen Mahon, one of the Greenpeace people onboard the Haida Brave, "At the current rate of logging, many of the remaining rainforest valleys will be roaded or clearcut within the next 10 years. We can not stand by and watch as MacMillan Bloedel destroys British Columbia's rainforest."

At the site of the protest no one has yet been arrested. Late this afternoon, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sergeant Browoski told Greenpeace that they had been ordered to leave the site of the protest by the office of the Attorney General. It is unclear when the RCMP will return.

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

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Karen Mahon, occupying the Haida Brave (604) 220-7701

Tzeporah Berman on the Moby Dick (604) 329-2991

Tamara Stark, at the Greenpeace office 253-7701, or home 924-0283