Greenpeace activists dressed as gorillas board a ship and climbed it's cranes to prevent it off loading rainforest timber at the Italian port of Livorno.
The‘Guan He Kou’ is carrying sawn timberfrom the Congo Basin, where widespread illegal logging is destroying the forestand driving gorillas and chimpanzees towards extinction. The rainforest is alsohome to millions of indigenous people who depend on the forest for theirsurvival.
Greenpeace International’sForest Campaigner, Belinda Fletcher, said: ‘Stolen rainforest timber isflooding into ports in Italy and across Europe almost daily. It ends up onconstruction sites and is being sold in high street stores (1). If thiscriminal activity is not stopped, the world’s rainforests look set to disappearin our lifetime and the only forest elephants, lowland gorillas and chimpanzeesleft will be in zoos.”
The ship’s timber cargo waslogged by a Cameroonian timber company, Société Industrielle de Mbang (SIM),which is partly financed by Italian capital. (2) The rainforests of the CongoBasin are rapidly being decimated by the logging industry, which is notoriouslycorrupt in the region. During field investigations to Cameroon in 2005,Greenpeace discovered that SIM is illegally logging outside the boundaries ofits cutting permit. It also gatheredextensive evidence that SIM buys timber from other companies heavily involvedin illegal logging. (3)
Last year, Cameroon exportedapproximately €400 million worth of timber to countries across Europe. Italy isone of its main customers buying sawn wood, logs, veneer and mouldings. Otherkey importers are Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany.(4) When it leaves Italy, the ‘Guan He Kou’ and her cargo willgo to Spain.
Life on Earth depends onancient forests for its survival but only 20 per cent of the world’s originalforest remains intact. These last forests are threatened by the internationaldemand for cheap timber, yet there are no laws in Europe to allow theauthorities to seize shipments of illegally logged timber products, or tooblige companies to make sure their timber is not from illegal or destructivesources.
Greenpeace is calling onEuropean governments to outlaw all imports of illegal timber and to promoteenvironmentally and socially responsible forest management worldwide. Illegallogging and related trade is expected to be on the agenda of the AgricultureCouncil of the
EU on the 24-25th October.
Greenpeace is anindependent, campaigning organization, which uses non-violent, creativecommunication tools to put the spotlight on global environmental problems, andto drive towards solutions essential for a green and peaceful future.
Other contacts: Belinda Fletcher, Greenpeace International Forest Campaigner on +44 207 865 8225
VVPR info: Images of today’s action and Africa’s ‘Great Ape’ rainforest are available on request.Photos: John Novis on (M) +31 6 5381 9121Video: Maarten van Rouveroy on +31 (0) 20 718 2208 or (M) +31 646 197 322
Notes: (1) Consumers can guarantee that the timber products come from well-managed sources, by buying products carrying the logo of the Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC®). (2) Shareholders of SIM include the Italian timber companies Piarottolegno and Dassi. (3) In 2005, Greenpeace field investigators visited SIM’s cutting permit (Vente de Coupe 08-10-73) in the Mbam & Kim department in the Centre province of Cameroon. They documented large scale illegal logging activities by SIM outside the legal boundaries of its allocated permit. Greenpeace estimates that SIM has logged at least 850 hectares illegally in this area. Investigators also found that the SIM/TIB sawmill is sourcing timber from two permits held by other Cameroonian companies, FIAM and Topaze, whose permits are widely considered to be illegal in Cameroon. For more information see:http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/simillegalcameroon.pdf (4) Rupert Oliver & Emily Fripp, Changing International Markets For Timber: What African Producers Can do, African Timber Trade Forums, Producer Country Draft Cameroon, May-July 2005, section 1.2.