Update from the Rainbow Warrior

At the moment the Rainbow Warrior and her crew are berthed in Marseille where the Mistral is blowing very hard. Today we endured Force 9 and 10 winds with gusts reaching 11. But the crew is assembled, the campaigners are on board. It is time for action and not words. Time is running out for the world's remaining ancient forests and the clock is ticking. The next 8 weeks of the global Greenpeace push on ancient forests will be critical in determining the fate of some of the world's most beautiful and wild places. We simply have to turn the tide of destruction or some of the world's most amazing animals like the orang utan, chimpanzee, siberian tiger and gorilla face extinction in our lifetime.

So we are ready for what we have to do. This campaign push has taken months of planning, research, meetings and discussions.

We seem a long way from the world's ancient forests but a visit to ports around here clearly shows what is happening. On the quayside it is like walking through an ancient forest graveyard - huge logs plundered from the African rainforest lie sprawled by the hundreds all around. The cranes and trucks move incessantly, lifting the logs into the saw mills. The log ships work continuously transporting their cargoes of destruction day after day to ports around the world. I wonder how long this can continue for. Walking through these ports is to confront environmental madness head on.

Our first action is very close now. We are busy planning for this on board the Warrior. There is a buzz of expectation amongst the crew. We are looking forward to kicking off the campaign push with a major action and everything is set.

-- Tim Birch, February 22