Growing up in Canada,
I was a really lucky kid, with parents that wanted my brothers and I to love
nature and who would get us out into old-growth forests every chance we had. I
was lucky, too, because Canada
still had a rich environment, with beautiful lakes, and mountains covered in
magnificent trees that were home to so many different animals it was
breathtaking.
When I realized as an adult
how forests in Canada and elsewhere were being devastated by illegal or
destructive logging, it made my heart ache and made me long to try to stop it.
So it really didn’t surprise any of my family or friends when about 10 years
ago I decided to work for Greenpeace.
I’m so glad I did, because through these
years there have been some amazing experiences, with the fight for the forests
often being both exhausting and exhilarating. The logging industry globally is
very powerful, with resources far beyond those of Greenpeace or any other
environmental group. We’ve had to struggle hard to get extraordinary places
protected and, as the industry fought against protecting the forests, they’ve
often used every tactic imaginable to try to stop us. That’s included sending
people to jail, launching lawsuits against Greenpeace and individual employees
and, in some parts of the world, threatening the lives of our staff members.
But even so, in some rare instances, and with the support of literally millions
of people around the world, we have occasionally managed to prevail.
For me, one of the most
memorable moments came exactly a year ago, when an area of extremely rare
rainforest in Canada
was finally granted protected status. This is a place called the Great Bear
Rainforest, named this because of the large populations of different kinds of
bears that live there, and protecting it will help ensure that the Grizzly
Bears, wolves and deer that depend on the forest can survive in the future.
Greenpeace and other groups campaigned for nine years to stop the massive
clearcutting of this magnificent rainforest, and it took working with our
overseas colleagues in 15 different Greenpeace offices to make it happen.
Finally, through pressure from the global public and from overseas customers,
enough pressure was put on the logging companies that they had to stop.
Today, millions of hectares
of this rare rainforest are protected and when this happened a year ago, I’m
not ashamed to say I cried out of a mixture of joy and relief. Because nine
years of your life is a pretty long time, and only a few years ago I stood in
the middle of a horrifically large clearcut in a valley that I loved, and cried
for very different reasons. The Great Bear got protected only because so many
people around the world refused to give up, and for that I will be eternally
grateful – to them, and to have been a part of that experience.One of the most compelling
aspects of being part of Greenpeace is that we are able to work internationally
like this. It makes it possible to not only stop the destruction in one country
which then shifts the problem to someone else’s country, but instead we work to
address global problems on a global basis. All the world’s forests are
important, and it’s no good if we protect the Amazon if simultaneously the
African Congo is destroyed. I love the fact that my colleagues are so committed
to ensuring the world’s environment is safe, not just one country’s alone.
That’s one of the reasons I
accepted a request from Greenpeace China to come here to help set up
our Forests campaign. Like elsewhere I’ve worked, we’re committed to help
prevent the destruction of important natural forests in China, at the
same time that we’ll work to ensure that the timber that Chinese companies
import to manufacture products for overseas markets comes from legal and
sustainable sources. Since China
is now the second-largest wood manufacturing nation in the world, this is a
pretty big challenge, but we have a team of 8 bright, energetic and dedicated
people who understand forestry issues and the trade in forests products. I’m
pretty sure that if anyone can make a difference it’s going to be this group,
so long as we have the continued support of our valued members. Thanks to all
of you for your concern and your dedication to helping us create a green and
peaceful future.