Greenpeace activists send a big message to delegates of the 42nd International Tropical Timber Organization meeting.
Activists abseiled off the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Port
Moresby, hanging a banner for today's meeting of the 42nd
International Tropical Timber Organization committee.
As security guards tried to cut the banner down, a crowd
gathered outside the hotel, shouting, "Leave it up there!" No
activists were arrested.
Viewtoday's action slideshow
Greenpeace is highlighting tropical forest destruction as
governments, including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and New
Zealand, meet in Papua New Guinea's capital for the ITTO
conference. Most of PNG's timber is illegally logged.
ITTO faults PNG forest management
An ITTO diagnostic report has found the PNG Forest Authority
focuses "almost exclusively on exploitation of the forest resource
for the primary financial benefit of the national government".
The report also says, "Forest management is reduced to
monitoring logging operations at the expense of overall Sustainable
Forest Management."
So what is the ITTO going to do about PNG's disastrous forestry
management? Based on their report findings, they must take
action.
Says Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO, Steve Shallhorn,
"Greenpeace has taken action today to challenge the ITTO to protect
rather than trade away the planet's last tropical forests. They
must do more to ensure countries like PNG do something about
illegal and destructive logging."
Climate change and our disappearing forests
The International Panel on Climate Change says protecting large
expanses of rainforest is one of the most cost effective ways to
halt climate change.
The Australian government wants to spend $200 million to combat
Indonesian illegal logging. However, some of the region's most
important tropical forests will disappear unless PNG's illegal
logging is addressed.
Says Steve Shallhorn, "The best thing the Australian government
can do to protect our region's tropical forests, and keep forests
intact to combat climate change, is to urgently pass legislation
that ensures that illegal and destructive timber does not enter the
Australian market."
Read the executive summary of the ITTO report
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