Can Harry Potter save ancient forests?

Harry Potter, boy wizard extraordinaire, survived an attack from the most evil wizard of all time.  He has outwitted the terrifying Death Eaters. He has turned invisible - much to the annoyance of his teachers. 

He is a regular David Beckham at Quidditch - the magical version of World Cup football. But now he faces his greatest challenge yet.

Can he save our ancient forests?

In case you've been living in a cave, you should know that Harry Potter is popular. Make that extremely, wildly, undeniably popular. The next Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is being eagerly awaited by children (and, ahem, some adults) and will be released in July 2005 in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

As you can imagine, any print run as huge as Harry Potter can use thousands of trees, millions of litres of water, and enough electricity to power an ordinary, non-magical home for hundreds of years. However, printing on 100 percent ancient forest friendly paper protects ancient forests, and the muggle (that's "non-magical" for the uninitiated) creatures which depend on them. Ancient forest friendly paper can also reduce the use of water and electricity, as well as the amount of waste produced in the printing process.

We visited the headquarters of Harry Potter's publisher Bloomsbury with Hedwig, Harry Potter's owl to ask them 'Get Wise!' and print the next Harry Potter "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", due out this summer, on 100 percent ancient forest friendly paper.

We welcomed the subsequent statement by J.K. Rowling's publisher Bloomsbury, clarifying that they will improve the environmental qualities of the next Harry Potter book by printing it on partly ancient forest friendly paper. This will be the first best selling book in the UK to be printed on such a paper.

Bloomsbury's publicity manager, Katie Bond, has confirmed to us that the company has ordered a paper containing 30 percent Forest Stewardship Council certified wood pulp for the printing of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".
 
This is a positive first step.

But we will continue to toil over our cauldrons to encourage Bloomsbury to take the big leap for ancient forests and print the paperback edition of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,' and all their other titles, on 100 percent ancient forest friendly paper.

Similar initiatives have successfully led to millions of books being printed on ancient forest friendly paper internationally - including the Canadian edition of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' which was printed on 100 percent post consumer waste paper by Raincoast Books.

We have been working with authors, including J.K. Rowling, and publishers to encourage the industry to stop sourcing paper from ancient forest regions and instead to move towards ancient forest friendly paper. We still need you to help work some magic below by pressuring the US publisher of Harry Potter to follow the good example set by other publishers.

Work some magic!

Send your own virtual Hedwig to ask the US publisher of Harry Potter to confirm that they are going 100 percent ancient forest friendly with the next Harry Potter.

Spread the magic - send an owler to your friends to help convince the US publisher of Harry Potter to go ancient forest friendly.

More information

Read more about the Greenpeace Book Campaign.
Brush up on your Harry Potter vocabulary.