Four Greenpace volunteers today began their second day of occupatio of the MV ENif to prevent it from unloading its cargo of criminal timber from the Amazon rainforest at London's Tilbury docks. The volunteers who have spent over 48 hours on top of the ship's crane, are demanding that the cargo of rainforest plywood is returned to the Amazon and donated to local communities from the areas where it was logged.
Since Tuesday Greenpeace has been in correspondence with 22 timber companies known to be buyers of plywood from Amaplac, a subsidiary of the Malaysian logging company WTK which is behind the imports. Several companies have already responded to Greenpeace supporting our demand that they should stop buying timber from WTK's logging operations in the Amazon including supporting our action.
Greenpeace has also been in correspondence with the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who recently thanked Greenpeace for "the important role Greenpeace is playing in tackling illegal logging"(1). But Greenpeace is still awaiting a response from Tony Blair as to what action he will take against criminal timber imports from the Amazon rainforest regularly calling at Tilbury.
Greenpeace Forest Campaign Director John Sauven said, "We are determined to protect the Amazon rainforest and stop these criminal timber imports. Timber companies in the UK are beginning to wake up to the destruction that is taking place in the world's remaining ancient forests. Tony Blair has promised in words to stop illegal and destructive timber imports. Now it's time for him to act."
Among the companies who have responded to Greenpeace's demands is International Plywood, who said, "... we have been made aware of the trading policies of Amaplac and have since refused to negotiate any further business...we consider that most of the country's plywood manufacturing capability is being sustained by illegal sources...we alone cannot police this and if you are aware of any other plywood producers conducting business using illegally felled logs, we would be pleased to know their names." (2)
Premier Forest Products Ltd said "We were informed last week...of the Amaplac situation and obviously made the decision to suspend any future enquiries at that stage."(3)
Taylor Maxwell Timber Limited informed Greenpeace that they became aware "of the situation from the News on the 20 th . Our situation is that we will not be purchasing Amaplac Plywood until further notice."(4)
Every month up to 1400 tonnes of plywood from the Amazon come into the UK. The Brazilian Government has said that 80% of all wood logged in the Amazon is taken illegally. WTK, the Malaysian multinational behind these timber imports is one of the world's biggest rainforest destroyers. The company has convictions, along with its third party log suppliers, for trading in illegal logs from the Amazon. WTK is also threatening to log on land belonging to Amazon Indians.
Notes to editors:
(1) Letter from Tony Blair to Greenpeace (26/5/2000)
(2) Fax from International Plywood to Greenpeace (20/6/2000)
(3) Fax from Premier Forest Products Ltd (20/6/2000)
(4) Fax from Taylor Maxwell Limited (21/6/2000)
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255
