Summary The Cabinet Office refurbishment project is using more than £400,000 worth of sapele from Central and West Africa for doors and windows. Greenpeace has uncovered a chain of supply that ultimately links the UK Cabinet Office to a number of the most notorious international logging companies operating in Africa's last ancient forests all with records of unsustainable, destructive and illegal logging.
Greenpeace today condemned the British Government for failing in its commitment to protect ancient forests as it was revealed that authorities in Germany have impounded a cargo of illegally logged mahogany from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest - almost identical to one the UK government refused to seize earlier this month. Authorities in Belgium have today also committed to action on this issue.
The Brazilian mahogany, imported to Germany by international timber trader DLH, was seized by German authorities upon its arrival in Hamburg docks at the beginning of March. The mahogany has been impounded whilst the Government attempts to clarify with Brazilian Authorities whether or not the mahogany contravenes a mahogany logging and trade ban imposed by the Brazilian government at the end of last year.
Explaining the German government's action the Deputy Minister for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, Mathias Berninger, said that "This mahogany is from the Rainforest of Brazil and originates presumably from dubious forest management We are holding this mahogany and we will not release it, until it is ensured that it was logged under reasonable circumstances." (1)
A further cargo of mahogany is destined for Belgium and the UK. Today the Belgian Minister for the Environment, Magda Aelvoet stated that "The trade in mahogany from dubious origin is unacceptable. In such circumstances Belgium will detain mahogany as long as there is no absolute clarity about the legal status of the produced mahogany." (2)
All three international companies targeted by Greenpeace's Amazon campaign in Brazil - Malaysian based WTK/Amaplac, Eidai from Japan and French based Lapeyre - have shifted ground as a result of campaign work carried out over the last six months.
Greenpeace commends the Deni for protecting their land from illegal logging
Manaus, Brazil, 18 October 2001: After a two year struggle supported by Greenpeace, Missionary Indigenist Council (CIMI), and Operacao Amazonia Nativa (OPAN), the Deni Indians of the Brazilian Amazon won formal recognition of their rights to their traditional land.
The Amazon rainforest is one of the biologically richest areas in the world containing more than one-third of the world's remaining ancient forests and supporting up to 50% of the planet's land-based animal and plant species. The Amazon contains more than 2.5 million species of insects, more than 300 species of mammals, 2000 species of fish and more than 60,000 species of plants.
