Noose left as warning to Greenpeace activists at our Forest Rescue Station in Lapland.
Under a bright new moon a siren wailed. Every half hour since
I'dtucked up for the night in a sleeping bag good for minus 30
degrees,it's warning had disturbed the peace. Out under the stars
gazing upthrough the pines I'd hoped to see the Northern Lights but
as fine snowfell on my face the siren's rising and falling drone
stirred old anddeep feelings of emergency. It was an alarm that
would have sent mymother running to shelter from the terror of the
Blitz.
Tonight the forest was a theatre of images and sounds that had
beencontorted into a confusing mixture of terror and horror:
sirens,chainsaws, screams and burning crosses. Dark figures lit by
the mooncrunched in the snow at the edge of the camp.
This reign of terror and intimidation is the logger's response
to amoratorium on cutting Finland's ancient forests in Lapland.
They wantGreenpeace and it's supporters to leave. Though for the
Sámi, the onlyremaining indigenous people of Northern Europe, this
could be the lastchance to save their homeland.
As an Author I had been invited by Greenpeace to see first hand
what'sat stake in the supply of paper into Europe; the stock of a
writer'sprofession. It was a shock to learn that ancient forest is
being pulpedto feed the demand of the UK magazine industry.
The Forest Rescue Station established by Greenpeace at the
invitationof the Sámi has stirred up hostility among locals who
fear for theirlivelihoods. In response to the threat of job losses
logging employeeshave set up their own camp just a hundred metres
down the road callingit the "Anti Terrorist Information Centre."
Tonight however it's clearwho's dishing out the terror.
As the dawn broke and the sun sent sparkling shards low through
thetrees all was quiet, fresh and beautiful. I savoured the moment
thencaptured it with my camera kept in hope of just such a scene.
Sadly itwas to be last morning that the sun would warm the bark of
the trees inmy viewfinder. The following night in an escalation of
the terrorcampaign a large tree-harvesting machine was driven into
the Greenpeacecamp to fell the aged pine.
So what's behind the madness that creates bad guys from ordinary
peopleand casts Greenpeace locally as the villain of the piece? At
thecentre of the dispute are the conflicting interests of the state
ownedlogging company and the reindeer herding Sámi people who are
callingfor the preservation of ancient forest and winter grazing
for theirreindeer. The arguments put forward by the Sámi
representatives duringour visit in favour of saving these last
tracts of old growth forestswere compelling. The logging company
declined to talk.
Determined to hear both sides of the story though our delegation
ofhalf a dozen European authors went down to meet the loggers at
theircamp.' It is essentially a workers picket line. Ordinary
working peoplefrightened for their future pushed into a corner.
Their banners of"Greenpeace = Al-Qa'ida" and "Greenpeace/Green
Nazi" seemed illconceived in light of the media circus that was
ready for us butanother reading "Authors we love you but Greenpeace
go home" was aslightly more reassuring welcome.
Separating people from their actions can be difficult but it was
easyto understand the concerns of the people we met. In their eyes
this issimply a struggle for jobs and survival but they join a
growing numberof workers whose jobs and job security are
disappearing. On the day Ileft the UK for Finland the collapse of
the UK's last major carmanufacturer Rover, was announced with up to
twenty thousand livesthrown into flux. The flow of western
investment to China's motorindustry, a predicted $13bn by the end
of the decade must be set tohave a serious impact on the European
car industry. It's clear bigbusiness doesn't care who does the work
as long as it's cheap.
In wealthy Europe redundant car workers will benefit from
retrainingand aid cash to soften the blow as the inexorable shift
inmanufacturing continues eastwards. In this dispute though it
seems theFinnish government has left its employees out in the
cold. Bycontinuing to refer to the problem as a local issue
workers are left tofear for their future driving them to desperate
measures. It mustbe the duty of government to step in to provide
security for familiesworking in an area that has become subject to
changing consumer values.Given a choice, a growing number of
informed customers for Finland'spaper will insist that it's origins
aren't tainted with the destructionof ancient forest or
cultures.
While the loggers fret for their futures the Sámi people
struggle topreserve their cultural way of life too. Inevitably the
lines betweenFinnish and Sámi have been blurred over the years but
a strong identitystill remains. I talked to a veteran Sámi
campaigner Niillas Sombyabout the differences in understanding the
value of the forest - thedistinction between living in nature and
the concept of owning it. Hetold me how the Sámi didn't believe in
monuments, statements ofdominance over the environment, "The
spirits are in everything, trees,water and the creatures yet when
the missionaries came, first theybuilt churches." Even now one of
the things that upsets Niillas is thattourists love to make little
stacks with the flat stones that litterthe ground. With a smile he
said, "you westerners cannot leave withoutsaying, 'I was here' with
your little monuments." I had torecognise my failing for
occasionally arranging leaves in the forest orpebbles on a beach.
It was small education on how we view the world yetit caught me in
my tracks.
As we place a value on the natural world in terms of a resource
wesubject it to ownership. It becomes ours to fence and harvest, to
buildour monuments. As our cultures become homogenised so will
ourlandscape, a monoculture to feed the needs of commerce. Yet
ourhearts are lifted by the infinite originality of nature, we
marvel atthe splendour of wilderness even if it's only on TV. And
it's OK towatch rather than participate in nature just so long as
we don't commitit to the reruns of things that died long ago.
Choose life.