What is being loaded into the Jaeger Arrow freighter?
Several thousands of tonnes of pulp manufactured at SFK Pulp's
St- Felicien pulp mill is loaded onto the feighter via the port of
Grande Ames, Quebec (also called the Saguenay Port). This pulp is
manufactured from wood chips supplied by logging company
Abitibi-Consolidated as well as Bowater.
Who owns the Jaeger Arrow freighter?
Gearbulk owns the freighter. Gearbulk is an international
shipping company that specializes in the transport of forest
products and metals. The freighter is registered under a Bahamanian
flag of convenience. It has a gross tonnage of 18900 tonnes. It
rises 30 metres above the water and is 171 metres long.
Why is Greenpeace targeting SFK Pulp today?
The main supplier of chips to SFK Pulp for use in the
manufacture of the company's pulp is Abitibi-Consolidated, with
additional supply from Bowater. These companies are mismanaging the
Boreal Forest and have done little to measurably improve their
forestry practices or ensure that critical wildlife habitat and
intact areas of the Boreal Forest under their tenure are protected.
Although SFK Pulp does not engage in any direct logging, the
company is one of the main customers of Abitibi-Consolidated and
has not answered our call to take action.
Originally owned by Abitibi, SFK was spun off the company in
2002. Abitibi fully divested in February 2004. Since 2002, a
20-year fibre supply agreement has been in place between Abitibi
and SFK: Abitibi supplies nearly all of SFK's wood chips for pulp
manufacture, worth nearly CDN$92 million, and in turn it also buys
some of SFK's pulp.
Many of the chips that Abitibi-Consolidated supplies under its
20-year fibre supply agreement with SFK Pulp originate in intact
forest areas in the Lac St-Jean region of Quebec located 500 km
north-east of Montreal. SFK also receives chips from Bowaterr.
What should SFK Pulp do?
SFK Pulp can help to protect the Boreal Forest by adopting a
procurement policy that gives preference to FSC certified wood and
exert pressure on its chip suppliers to end logging in critical
wildlife habitat and intact areas of the Boreal Forest.
Have you communicated with Abitibi-Consolidated and SFK
Pulp?
In June 2003, we began discussions with Abitibi to improve their
forestry operations. Despite nearly two years of meetings, phone
calls and discussions, there was no measurable change in the way
Abitibi practiced forestry. We broke off discussions in May 2005.
In June 2007 we communicated our concerns to Abitibi and again in
August, when we met with CEO John Weaver and members of his
executive team. Abitibi, to date, has not committed to any actions
to address our concerns. In June 2007 we outlined our concerns in a
letter to SFK Pulp CEO Andre Bernier. We have not yet received a
reply.
What is the frequency of shipments from the port of Grande Ames
to Europe?
Shipments are sent approximately once a month.
What is the destination for this pulp?
The ship will unload in the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium. The
vast majority of the pulp is destined for 2 paper mills owned by
Stora Enso. These mills are located in Kabel, Germany and Corbehem,
France. This pulp is used in the manufacture of magazine papers
sold throughout Europe.
What is Stora Enso?
Stora Enso is a Finnish based forest products company, one of
the largest in the world. The company has 44,000 employees in more
than 40 countries on five continents. Stora Enso produces 16.5
million tonnes of paper and board and 7.4 million cubic metres of
sawn wood products each year. Stora Enso is the world's
second-largest producer of magazine paper, representing 19 per cent
of the market in Europe, 14 per cent in North America, and 40 per
cent in Latin America. This unit has annual production capacity of
4.8 million tonnes.
Who are some of Stora Enso's customers which use the paper
containing Boreal Forest pulp?
Many magazine publishers in Europe use Stora Enso's paper. Ones
using paper containing the Boreal Forest pulp include Der Spiegel,
Conde Nast, and Bauer Verlag Group, one of Europe's largest
magazine publishers. As well many catalogs in Europe are printed on
Stora Enso's paper containing Boreal Forest pulp.
What is the value of forest products exported from Quebec and
Ontario to Europe and the US?
In 2005, Quebec exported CDN$10 billion (US$9.6 billion) of
forest products to the United States and CDN$684 million (US$655
million) to Europe. Ontario exported CDN$8.1 billion (US$7.8
billion) of forest products to the United States and CDN$92 million
(US$88.2 million) to Europe. More than 25 million cubic meters and
43 million cubic meters of roundwood was harvested from Ontario and
Quebec respectively in 2004, with most of this coming from the
Boreal Forest.
What is the purpose of today's direct action?
Because the provincial government and the forest industry have
failed to protect the Boreal Forest, forest workers and their
communities we have are seeking to engage the international
marketplace to step in take action. We are shining a spotlight on
the destruction being caused by logging and pulp companies,
Abitibi-Consolidated, Kruger, Bowater and SFK Pulp. Our aim is to
get customers to put pressure on these companies to suspend logging
in intact forests in order to create protected areas and to certify
their logging operations to the internationally recognized
standards of the Forest Stewardship Council. We want these
companies to end their conflicts with First Nations aboriginal
communities and to support forest workers with sustainable
businesses.
Why is Greenpeace using this confrontational strategy?
Time is running out and the government and industry show no
signs of acting. In Quebec, less than 30% of the commercial Boreal
Forest remains intact and less than 5% of the province's forest is
protected from industrial development. Quebec's Coulombe Commission
on the future of Quebec's forests recommended that 12% of the
Boreal Forest in the province be protected by 2010.
In Ontario, intact forest areas are also quickly disappearing
despite overwhelming public support for forest protection and
promises. The woodland caribou are facing extinction by the middle
of this century.
Greenpeace has a long history of using peaceful civil
disobedience to expose forest destruction, to present solutions and
to drive change.
Do people in Quebec care about Boreal Forest Protection?
A new Leger Marketing poll commissioned by Greenpeace revealed
that 86 per cent of Quebecers support the suspension of logging in
the last remaining intact areas of Boreal Forest in the province
while only 18% per cent of respondents believe that forest
companies and the government of Quebec are managing forests in a
way that serves the public interest and forest workers. Leger
polled 1,058 adults in Quebec between August 29th and September 5th
and the results are considered accurate within 3.4 percentage
points, 19 times out of 20.
Why is Greenpeace focusing on the Boreal Forest in Canada?
Doesn't forest destruction happen all over the world?
Greenpeace works to defend ancient forests around the globe and
understands that ancient forests across the planet are in crisis.
Greenpeace has highlighted deforestation in the Democratic Republic
of Congo where despite a moratorium, new logging titles have been
granted, is actively working to defend the Paradise Forest of Asia
Pacific and continues to do work to save the Amazon rainforests.
The trade in forest products is global and products from one forest
are shipped all over the world. We know that decisions on what to
purchase in Europe, China or the USA influence what happens in the
forests of Canada and vice versa.
Why is Greenpeace aiming its campaign at businesses and not at
government?
While it is government who has the power to permanently protect
the Boreal Forest and legislate sustainable forestry and Greenpeace
has made engaging government a key part of our Boreal campaign, the
governments of Ontario and Quebec have consistently failed to
protect the Boreal Forest, to support local communities and workers
and to end conflicts with First Nations communities.
How is Greenpeace planning on using the power of the
marketplace?
We are in dialogue with numerous customers of the logging and
pulp companies named in the Consuming Canada's Boreal Forest - the
chain of destruction from logging companies to consumers report. We
are informing them of the practices of the companies and asking
them to demand measurable change. We are pushing customers to use
their financial power to pressure logging companies to make
change.
How did Greenpeace use the Canadian and International
marketplace in the campaign to protect the Great Bear
Rainforest?
In the late 1990s, following years of blockades against
destructive logging operations in the pristine valleys of this
coastal temperate rainforest, environmental organizations began
reaching out to the marketplace by tracking and engaging customers
and investors of logging companies. Along with contract
cancellations and procurement policies some companies decided to do
even more. In 1999, key customers came to tour British Columbia's
forests.
Their active engagement was pivotal in the future of the Great
Bear Rainforest. They met with environmentalists, the logging
industry and government. They saw their responsibility and
opportunity to catalyze change. They supported the cessation of
logging in pristine valleys of the rainforest while solutions were
discussed. This space to sit down and talk while key ecological
areas were off limits to logging was critical to creating new
protecting areas and developing a new standard of forestry.
From 2001 to 2006, local communities, the logging and mining
industries, recreational users, tourism operators, labour unions,
small businesses and environmental organizations participated in
meetings and collaboration that resulted in consensus
recommendations on land-use in the Great Bear Rainforest. The
unprecedented component in this process was the use of independent
science supported by all stakeholders.
These land-use recommendations were used to inform (First
Nations & Provincial) government-to-government negotiations and
18 coastal First Nations have completed and initialled land use
agreements. In February 2006, the BC Government publicly announced
the agreements included protection of one third of the forest from
logging and a new system of forestry called, Ecosystem Based
Management, to be fully implemented by March 2009.
Additionally, environmental organizations worked with
philanthropic groups and governments to successfully raise $120
million for conservation and sustainable businesses for local
communities and workers on the Coast. By any measure, the
preservation of the Great Bear Rainforest is one of the most
compelling conservation visions of our times.
Why should companies switch to the Forest Stewardship
Council?
While many forest-certification schemes exist, only the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) is socially responsible, rigorous,
performance-based and leads to a measurable improvement in logging
operations. The FSC is the most customer and government recognized
certification program in the world and is the number one
certification system preferred by major forest products
customers.
-
- FSC standards are nationally and ecosystem based, tailored to
specific types of forests unlike most other certification
schemes.
-
- FSC standards are agreed to by the consensus of three
representative chambers
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- Environmental represented by conservation organizations
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- Social represented by unions, forest workers and local
communities
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- Economic represented by logging companies and customers
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- Additionally, in Canada because of the large number of First
Nations communities in the forest, a fourth Aboriginal chamber is
part of the FSC.
-
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- FSC certified logging companies tend to have less conflicts
with aboriginal communities than companies certified to other
certification schemes that do not emphasized agreement with local
communities.
-
- No one sector or chamber controls the FSC unlike other
certification schemes
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- FSC has the strongest chain of custody on record to track the
supply chain of forest products from source to end product.
-
- In the development of the National Boreal Standard, the
Canadian Forest Stewardship Council integrated a truly balanced
collection of perspectives, including those of the World Wildlife
Fund Canada, Forest Products Association of Canada (PFAC), the
National Aboriginal Forestry Association (NAFA) and faculty from
the Universities of New Brunswick and Lakehead; by contrast,
neither the SFI nor the CSA included major environmental groups or
Aboriginal communities in the development of their standards In
fact, the Sierra Club of Canada and NAFA withdrew from the CSA
development process, citing insufficient standards.
-
- Rather than meet strict, third party set standards, SFI and
CSA-certified companies are given suggested or procedural
recommendations to follow, and left to form their own specific
objectives.
-
- With certified forest in over 80 countries, FSC is the only
truly international standard of certification.
-
- FSC has the most widely used and recognizable logo which allows
international customers to identify products derived from
responsibly managed forests.
How many hectares of forest are certified to the standards of
the FSC?
More than 90 million hectares of forest in 80 countries are
certified to the standards of the FSC. There are more than 4,900
FSC chain of custody certificate holders and more than 21 million
hectares of forest in Canada are certified FSC. Leading FSC
certified companies in Canada include Domtar, Tembec and Alberta
Pacific Industries. The FSC is the fastest growing certification
scheme in the world.
What certification are customers demanding?
Overwhelming, where a customer shows a preference for a
certification scheme in their environmental policies, the
certification is FSC. There are dozens of companies with FSC
preferences including Ikea, Home Depot, Dell, Random House Canada,
Hydro-Quebec, Limited Brands and Cascades. On August 5, 2007 even
the Ontario Government indicated a preference for FSC-certified
papers for use in government operations.
What about forest workers?
Greenpeace is not asking for the end of the forest industry in
Canada but rather the reformation of this industry. We believe that
logging can continue to occur in the Boreal Forest if it is done
responsibly. We do not believe that the logging companies and the
provincial and federal government have done a good job in
supporting forest-based communities and their workers - they have
effectively dropped the ball in protecting jobs and diversifying
the economies of northern communities. They have not recognized the
international marketplace's growing demand for sustainable forest
products and have not invested profits during the 'good times' to
remain innovative and competitive. We believe that governments and
industry have failed workers.
What is the history of the Greenpeace vessel, Artic
Sunrise?
The Arctic Sunrise's life with Greenpeace began with the
campaign to stop the dumping of oil drilling platforms at sea.
Launched from the Arctic Sunrise, Greenpeace activists occupied the
Brent Spar oil storage facility in the North Sea to prevent the
14,500 tonne installation from being scuttled. The action, part of
an ongoing campaign to stop ocean dumping, pitted Greenpeace
against the combined forces of the UK government and the world's
then-largest oil company.
Since this inaugural action, the Arctic Sunrise has fought many
campaigns. It has chased pirate vessels fishing illegally in the
Indian Ocean, confronted polluters in the Mediterranean and whalers
South Atlantic, and manoeuvred directly into the path of a
Minuteman missile being tested as part of the US "Star Wars"
defense system.
In the Southern Ocean, just last fall, the Arctic Sunrise was
deliberately rammed and damaged by the Nisshin Maru, the factory
ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, which is more than twice as
long as and six times heavier than the Greenpeace vessel. The
impact left the Sunrise battered and bruised but luckily no crew
members were injured.
As befits her name, the Arctic Sunrise has spent much of its
time in the polar regions. She has made repeated voyages to the
Arctic Beaufort Sea to oppose seismic testing for new offshore oil
reserves, and documented climate change both in Alaska and
Greenland.
The last time the Arctic Sunrise campaigned in Canada was in
2005 when it came to oppose the production of nuclear power.
Activists from the Arctic Sunrise, accompanied by local supporters
in a flotilla of small boats, hung banners and dumped fake barrels
of radioactive waste at Quebec's only nuclear plant,
Gentilly-2.
The MY Arctic Sunrise is an ice breaker, designed to withstand
the icy conditions it faced during its early life as a sealing
vessel. To cut through the ice, she is built with a rounded hull
and no keel. The ship is designed this way so that when she hits
the ice her bow lifts up out of the water and when she comes back
down, the weight of the ship breaks the ice. As a consequence, she
rolls - up to 60 degrees - making her uncomfortable at times for
any crew member who is prone to sea sickness.
The crow's nest is used to navigate through the ice, and in the
Arctic Sunrise's former life, it was from the crow's nest that the
hunters would scout for seals. Today it's a good spot for sighting
polar bears and other wildlife during scientific expeditions.
The state of the art navigation equipment aboard the Arctic
Sunrise is located on the bridge. Mounted above the bridge are
satellites receivers, which enable Greenpeace to use email, fax and
the telephone while at sea. There is also a darkroom and video
editing suit on board. This equipment is essential for transmitting
images of environmental crimes and violations back to land.
Quick Facts: Boreal Forest Destruction in Canada
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- More than 70% of the forestlands under the collective
management of Abitibi-Consolidated, Bowater and Kruger have been
degraded or fragmented by clearcuts and logging roads.
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- Over 700,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of Canada's Boreal
Forest is cleared by logging each year.
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- Over 90 per cent of the forest cut is being ecologically and
destructively clearcut, with individual cuts sometimes extending
over 10,000 hectares, or 17,000 football fields.
-
- Scientists studying woodland caribou fear that if large tracts
of intact Boreal Forest are not protected, the species could be
extinct in Ontario by the middle of this century. The situation is
similar in Quebec.
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- Nearly one million hectares of forest in Quebec and 500,000
hectares of forest in Ontario had been fragmented due to logging
and other development during a 12 year study period from 1989 to
2001, according to satellite mapping and analyses done by Global
Forest Watch Canada,
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- Canada's Boreal Forest is a giant storehouse of 47.5 billion
tonnes of carbon-seven times the amount of the entire world's
annual fossil fuels emissions.
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- Older forests hold more carbon in their trees and soils.