Press release - 30 May, 2003
Greenpeace activists today blocked the entrance to the city council of Barcelona with a coffin containing a gorilla puppet and a banner that read, "No more illegal logging." The coffin is made of timber from well-managed forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council™(FSC®).
Greenpeace activists block the entrance to the city council of Barcelona with a coffin containing a mock gorilla with a banner that reads, No more illegal logging.Greenpeace has recently uncovered that the Council buys timber from illegal logging companies to produce coffins in its funeral service company.
Barcelona, one of the great cities of Europe, has announced a strong commitment to forest protection and the use of sustainable timber. However, Greenpeace has recently uncovered that the Council buys timber from illegal logging to produce coffins in its funeral service company.
"Illegal logging contributes to the destruction of the last ancient forests, threatenes forest animals such as the gorilla and robs people of their resources," said Christoph Thies, a Greenpeace Forests Campaigner.
"Buyers of illegal logging are accomplices to that destruction."
The timber supplier for the Barcelona funeral service is Maderas Vicente importing it from Cameroon where illegal and destructive logging is rampant and Liberia where the revenues from log exports fuel armed conflict.
"The FSC® coffin shows that the alternative to illegal and destructive timber exists and its high time for Barcelona and other cities in Spain and abroad to implement their commitment to forest protection," concluded Thies.
Greenpeace is demanding that governments at the local, regional and state level buy timber only from sustainable sources. The Forest Stewardship Council™is currently the only certification scheme the meet the ecological and social standards for certifying these sources.