Press release - October 12, 2007
Activists with Greenpeace have prevented a ship from off-loading several thousand tonnes of newsprint in the harbour of Terneuzen, Netherlands. The newsprint comes from Abitibi-Consolidated, the most important logging company in Canada, which is logging some of the last intact areas of the Boreal Forest.
Greenpeace activists blocked a cargo ship carrying newsprint sourced from the Canadian Boreal Forest. The blockade took place in Terneuzen, Netherlands.
Today's shipment was destined for Dutch newspaperpublishers.
PCM, Wegener and the Telegraaf Media Groep allbuy from Abitibi with
annual purchases of over 26,000 tonnes of paper.Abitibi is their
most important Canadian source of newsprint. Only asmall fraction
of the paper is recycled. Greenpeace research shows thatthe paper
of Abitibi consists of over 90 per cent virgin fibers.
On the hull of the 'Finnwood', a 170-metre longship, activists
in inflatable boats painted "No Newspapers from AncientForests" in
Dutch and are calling on the Dutch government to ensurethat forest
product imports into the country are not coming fromancient
forests.
"This action is an example of thegrowing international concern
with the state of Canada's BorealForest," said Kim Fry, a forest
campaigner with GreenpeaceCanada. "Greenpeace will continue to put
pressure oninternational corporate customers of Abitibi
Consolidated until we seeprotection of intact areas and a
transformation of their loggingpractices".
Abitibi-Consolidated is the mostimportant newspaper producer in
Canada. The company has logging permitsfor more than 16.8 million
hectares in Canada. Already, an area threetimes the size of France
has been degraded and fragmented bydevelopment in the Boreal Forest
region (175 million hectares). Morethan 76% of the forests under
the management of Abitibi have alreadybeen degraded and fragmented
Abitibi has also failed tocertify itself to the rigorous standards
of the international ForestStewardship Council.
The Canadian Boreal Forest isone of the largest ancient forests
left on the planet, with many largeintact areas. It's a very
important storehouse of carbon, with anestimated 47.5 billion
tonnes stored in its soils and trees. The forestis also a natural
habitat for many threatened species such as thecaribou.
Greenpeace Canada is calling on thegovernments of Ontario and
Quebec for a moratorium on logging inremaining intact areas and
caribou habitat until large scale protectionis implemented.
For more information, please visitwww.greenpeace.ca/boreal orcall: Kim Fry,
Greenpeace Forest Campaigner, (647) 406-0664
High resolution images avaliable on gallery.greenpeace.ca from 6 am on October 13, 2007.