Thousands of people join with Greenpeace to produce giant art installation for Blair telling him to help protect the world's remaining ancient forests
Today, Greenpeace along with a delegation of individuals from the fashion, club, DJ and arts world have taken part in a procession delivering a postcard-petition sculpture to Tony Blair at No 10 Downing Street. The delivery coincides with the Ancient Forest Summit being held in The Hague, the Netherlands from 17th - 20th April.
The delivery of the art sculpture is a result of thousands of people around the country signing a Save or Delete postcard. It depicts animals in a devastated ancient forest landscape with a message telling Tony Blair to ban the import of illegal and destructively logged timber from the world's remaining ancient forests. In addition to the vote-postcards individuals wanting to add their voice to this crucial issue have been able to register their vote online at www.saveordelete.com and send a message directly to Tony Blair.
The postcards have been transformed into a striking visual art piece by Brit-artist Tod Hanson. The sculpture design entails a series of beautiful giant leaves representing threatened species of trees found in the ancient forests. To construct the sculpture Tod teamed up with Notting Hill based production team Mahogany, famous for their large carnival costumes. The postcard construction is made from metal mesh that the postcards have been affixed to.
"The concept of producing the art installation out of postcards I feel is a really excellent way to bring people on board and get them participating in a political campaign that is cutting edge and trend setting" says Tod Hanson.
Ministers from the world's governments, including the UK's Environment Minister, Michael Meacher will be meeting this week in The Hague to decide the future of the world's remaining ancient forests. If no action is taken at this Summit illegal and destructive logging will continue threatening to wipe out thousands of species of plants, animals and put the livelihoods of indigenous communities at risk.
The UK is particularly relevant as it's one of the world's biggest consumers of wood and paper products from these ancient forests. Last year Tony Blair promised to tackle illegal logging and put the UK Government's own house in order by ensuring it uses legal wood from well-managed forests. So far, these promises have been little more than rhetoric.
Brenda Ramsey, Greenpeace Forest Campaigner said: "The postcard sculpture is a message from the public alerting Mr Blair that this year is a key opportunity for his government to put words into real action and ban the import of illegal and destructive timber from ancient forests."
To help raise the profile of the Greenpeace Save or Delete campaign famous clubs, fashion and artists have put their names to the campaign by organising club nights, designing cloths and producing artwork.
Renowned clubs like Ministry of Sound, Cream, Cargo and Gatecrasher have been dedicating nights to the campaign and turning themselves into polling stations where people who go clubbing each weekend could register their votes to save the forests.
Further information:
Contact Rhiannon Sheehy on 020 7313 2568 or email on Rhiannon@spring-pr.com, or call the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.
