Greenpeace, the pioneering environmental advocacy group, is getting a lot of attention at the moment for their attack on Apple’s not very green iPhone. But their international work also includes efforts to protect the world’s forests.
A cargo ship in Terneuzen, Netherlands carrying newsprint made by Canadian logging company, Abitibi-Consolidated, was recently blocked by Greenpeace activists. They prevented the ship from off-loading several thousand tonnes of newsprint destined for Dutch newspaper publishers PCM, Wegener and the Telegraaf Media Groep. Only a fraction of the 26 000 tonnes of paper that these companies buy every year is recycled. Most of the paper from Abitibi consists of 90 percent virgin fibers and most of that is coming from Canada’s ancient Boreal Forest.
“No Newspapers from Ancient Forests” was written in Dutch on the inflatable boats used by the Greenpeace team who called on the Dutch government to make sure that any paper products they buy do not come from ancient forests. The Canadian Boreal Forest is one of the largest ancient forests left on the planet, with many areas still intact. It is a very important storehouse of carbon, with an estimated 47.5 billion tonnes stored in its soils and trees. The forest is also a natural habitat for many threatened species such as the caribou.
The action taken by Greenpeace “is an example of the growing international concern with the state of Canada’s Boreal Forest,” says Kim Fry, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace Canada. “Greenpeace will continue to put pressure on international corporate customers of Abitibi-Consolidated until we see protection of intact areas and a transformation of their logging practices.”
Abitibi-Consolidated is the most important newspaper producer in Canada, with a logging permit for over 16.8 million hectares in Canada. An area three times the size of France has already been degraded and fragmented by development in the Boreal Forest. Abitibi-Consolidated has also failed to certify itself to the rigorous standards of the international Forest Stewardship Council, a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests.
This article was published Friday, October 19, 2007.
