Timber from trashed Indonesian rainforests is being used in new EU buildings in Brussels, threatening the survival of the orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger.
Greenpeace investigators discovered that both the home of the EU - the Berlaymont - and the Economic and Social Committee building use Indonesian rainforest plywood for walls and flooring. The plywood was supplied by companies known to have been trading in illegal timber.
This morning at 7am, 50 Greenpeace activists, including 15 from the UK, entered the Economic and Social Committee building to halt construction and highlight the plight of the ancient forests of Indonesia, home to some of the world's most endangered species.
Greenpeace climbers scaled the building, while other activists attempted to replace rainforest wood with environmentally-friendly timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Meanwhile, more Greenpeace volunteers made an effort to blockade the entrance with FSC timber.
Indonesian rainforest plywood used in the two buildings is being supplied by companies including Korindo and Asia Forestama Raya (AFR). An Indonesian Government investigation has found that Korindo buys illegal timber supplied by notorious timber barons known to obtain timber from an orang-utan refuge, Tanjung Puting National Park. AFR have been shown to be buying illegal timber from a protected refuge where some of the last 500 Sumatran tigers live.
Greenpeace campaigner Andy Tait said: "The EU is responsible for trashing the last rainforests of Indonesia. These rainforests should be home to orang-utans and tigers, not Brussels bureaucrats in plush offices.
"If these forests and the endangered species they support are to have any kind of future, the EU must act to stop the trade in illegal timber and clean up its timber buying."
Indonesia's rainforest is disappearing faster than any other rainforest in the world. An area the size of Belgium is destroyed every year. This rainforest is a haven for wildlife, with the longest list of endangered species in the world, including both the Sumatran tiger and the orang-utan, whose numbers have halved in just 10 years.
For more information, contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.
Notes
1. FSC certification ensures that timber products come from socially and environmentally responsible forest management.
2. Investigations in 2003 by the Dutch based campaign group Milieudefensie revealed that AFR has been accepting illegal timber from the Giam Siak Kecil wildlife refuge. Giam Siak Kecil is a 50,000 hectare reserve that is home to the critically endangered Sumatran tiger. The report, 'Suspect timber from Indonesia' can be found at www.milieudefensie.nl/foenl/publicaties.htm
3. Korindo's Ariabima Sari mill was inspected by Indonesian Department of forestry Inspectors in May 2003 and found to be using illegal logs purchased from the notorious Rasyid family, known for the trade in illegal timber from Tanjung Puting national park (see for example EIA/Telapak, 'Illegal logging in Tanjung Puting National Park' www.eia-international.org).
4. From report by TRAFFIC, 'Nowhere to Hide: The Trade in Sumatran Tigers' available at www.traffic.org/sumatrantigers.pdf
For full details on the companies supplying Indonesian rainforest plywood to these construction sites please see 'Forest Crime: EU enlargement programme fuels the destruction of Indonesia's last rainforests' available at www.saveordelete.com.
