Today in Kobe Harbour, Japan, four Greenpeace activists from the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior boarded and occupied the ship 'Manzanillo'. The ship is carrying 11 containers of plywood from the Amazon rainforest exported by the Japanese wood-products giant Eidai Inc. The activists raised banners in Japanese and English saying "Eidai, don't buy illegally logged timber", and "G-8: Stop Illegal logging."
This week, the Brazilian Government is expected to announce that following recent fines against Eidai subsidiary, Eidai do Brasil, they have now levied a record fine against the company of about US$1.88 million (3,400,000 Brazilian Reals) for trading timber obtained illegally (1). Eidai is the largest exporter of processed timber in the Amazon's Para State and sells plywood and veneer to the UK, USA, Japan, Portugal and the Netherlands (2).
John Sauven, Greenpeace UK Campaign Director said
"This new, record level fine is an expression by the government of their frustration with Eidai and how deeply involved Eidai is in the illegal timber trade in Brazil. Today, Greenpeace has demanded that Eidai change the way they do business. The choice is theirs -- they can remain villains and outlaws in the global forest crisis, or become heroes in helping end it."
It is essential that governments of industrial nations such as Japan play a strong role in ensuring that their transnational companies and wood products traders deal only in legal and sustainable produced forest products. Japan as well as the UK is a major customer of timber products from countries where illegal logging in ancient forests is currently the norm rather than the exception. At their 1998 summit in Birmingham the G8 announced the Forest Action Program and committed to eliminating illegal logging and the illegal timber trade. Yet illegal logging continues to flourish. The Brazilian Government estimates that 80% of all logs cut in the rapidly shrinking Brazilian Amazon are extracted illegally.
John Sauven of Greenpeace UK said,
"At the forthcoming G-8 summit we must see concrete action and not just more talk about the seriousness of the problem. G-8 countries must start by acting to ensure that all of their timber imports consist only of legal, sustainably produced timber. The UK as a major consumer of wood products has a leadership role to play in ending the illegal timber trade," he said.
Greenpeace is carrying out a global campaign to prevent the destruction of the world's last remaining ancient forests. In the past weeks, Greenpeace has carried out direct actions around the world against the criminal import of timber into Japan and into the UK and other European countries. Yesterday evening (10 July) 4 Greenpeace volunteers boarded the vessel Aegis in the port of Leixoes, Portugal and uncovered a cargo of logs and timber from the French logging giant Rougier found to be logging illegally in Cameroon only 2 weeks ago.
Note to Editors:
1. UK importers and buyers of Eidai plywood include: - Alsford Timber, James Latham plc, Midland Wallboard, Paterson Timber Ltd, S. Silverman & Son (importers) Ltd, Willian T Eden plc, Y Goldberg & Sons Ltd and Meyer Forest Products.
2. The fine refers to 9 legal infractions applied by IBAMA, the Brazilian government's environment agency, regarding 6,200 cubic meters of timber processed by Eidai in the period September 1999-February 2000. The illegal timber is part of a larger volume involving 22,000 cubic meters of illegal timber discovered during an investigation by IBAMA of Eidai's records upon the request of Greenpeace. The 6,200 cubic meters of illegal timber falls under Brazil's new environmental crimes law which took effect in September 1999. Last year, Greenpeace investigators in Brazil, using simple ultra-violet paint, revealed that logs being delivered to Eidai were illegal and asked IBAMA to search the accounts of Eidai. Fines for the remaining timber, processed by Eidai prior to the new legislation, are currently under consideration by IBAMA. With these 9 new violations, Eidai, over 11 years, violated Brazilian forestry laws 108 times.
3. Eidai imports plywood from Eidai do Brasil into Kobe, Japan through the trading house, Mitsubishi Corporation. It comes into the UK through the port of Felixstowe on P&O ships.
4. Greenpeace faxed Eidai's President a letter asking that the company commit to only process and purchase forest products obtained from legal and sustainable sources. This would mean that in future they will have to undertake to make every effort to ensure that the timber they purchase and process is obtained from suppliers operating in a legal and sustainable manner (e.g. by the criteria established by the Forests Stewardship Council (FSC).
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255
