Greenpeace activists onboard inflatable boats today welcomed the paper carrier "Finn Hawk" as it entered the Baltic Port of Luebeck in Germany. As the Finn Hawk navigated toward its berth, the activists painted the slogan "Forest Crime in Europe" to protest against the ongoing destruction of European ancient forests in Finland and to call on European Ministers to make the right decisions to further ancient forest protection in Europe during next week's Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe, MCPF, taking place in Vienna.
Greenpeace activists paint the slogan Forest Crime in Europe in protest against the ongoing destruction of European ancient forests in Finland and to call on European Ministers to make the right decisions to further ancient forest protection in Europe during next week?s Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe, MCPF, taking place in Vienna.
The Finn Hawk is loaded with paper products from the Finnish
paper companies Stora Enso and M-Real, both of which continue to
buy wood for its products from the last of Finland's ancient
forests. Other activists on the pier held a banner that read,
Forest ministers of Europe: save our ancient forests. Luebeck, the
location of today's protest the Baltic port of, is one of the most
important harbours for paper products from Finland in Europe.
"These activists are here to expose a crime," said Oliver Salge
of Greenpeace. "Even after numerous conversation for the last 12
months, the paper companies have taken no real measures to stop the
destruction of ancient forests in Finland and in fact are peddling
their ancient forest destruction to Europe and the rest of the
world. The executive director of Greenpeace Nordic, Lennart Daleus,
also participated in today's action.
Only a few pieces of the formerly vast ancient forests still
exist in Finland. Less than five percent of the Finnish forest
cover today is made up of ancient forests and only half of that is
protected from industrial logging and further destruction. These
forests are crucial for maintaining biodiversity and the
traditional livelihoods of the indigenous Sami and other
traditional communities. In the north-eastern part of Finland many
ancient forest areas are still unprotected and are being destroyed
by the state-owned forest enterprise Metsahallitus.
The three international paper companies are some of the main
customer for the timber harvested by the forest enterprise
Metsahallitus. This ancient forest timber is processed into pulp,
magazine grade, fine paper and cardboard in the Finnish paper mills
of Stora Enso (Kemijarvi, Oulu and Veisiluoto), UPM Kymmene
(Kajaani) and M-Real (Kemi) and shipped to destinations overseas.
The ancient forests ends up as copy paper, envelopes, packaging,
and in a range of publications from magazines and newspapers to
advertising flyers.
Currently, very few ancient forest and high conservation value
forests (HCVF) are protected in Europe. As the issue of forest
protection is debated at the MCPFE, Greenpeace is calling on
European Ministers to make real decisions to further the protection
of the last Ancient Forests instead of only stressing Sustainable
Forest Management, which can not adequately protect Europe's
forests alone.
Greenpeace is calling on the Finnish and EU governments to:
Immediately implement a logging moratorium in the Finnish
old-growth and other HCVFs until an effective protection plan has
been completed
Fund and implement Finland's National Biodiversity Action
Programme
Increase forest protection in Finland's old-growth and other
HCVFs. This should include the protection of all state-owned
natural and semi-natural old-growth forests as identified by
NGOs
VVPR info: Photographs available at Greenpeace Germany: ++49 40 30618 377Video material of the action is available at TNC, Hamburg +49 40 429 10 110