It's been a long time coming but
finally - finally! - the European parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favour
of a law banning illegal timber from entering the European Union. Like many
other organisations, Greenpeace has been campaigning on this for years - 10
long ones, in our case - so to see this become a reality is an amazing tribute
to the thousands of people who emailed, donated or took direct action.
The European
Parliament today voted to ban the import of illegal
timber.
Sarah Shoraka,
forests campaigner for Greenpeace, said: "This great new law will help to save
the forests in places such as the Amazon, Congo and Indonesia, and all the
wildlife that live there, like tigers, orangutans and
bonobos.
Orang-utans and tigers are being pushed towards extinction by pulp and paper giant APP, according to a new report released today by Greenpeace.
The report documents the areas on the Indonesian island of Sumatra where APP, part of the notorious Sinar Mas group, are destroying the rainforest.
Among the areas is the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape, which is one of the last remaining rainforest homes of the critically endangered Sumatran tiger and home to the only successful re-introduction program for the Sumatran orangutan.
Posted by jamie — 6 July 2010 at 9:56am
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Like orang-utans, the future of Sumatran tigers is being jeopordised by the relentless destruction of their habitat by paper giant APP
Even though we've
had huge success in turning companies like Unilever, Nestlé and Kraft
off palm oil produced by Sinar Mas, that only represents one part of the jigsaw and Sinar Mas is still chewing
its way through Indonesia's rainforests.
Palm oil is one of two
plantation products which are driving deforestation in Indonesia, paper
being the other big hitter. Needless to say, Sinar Mas is up to its
neck in the paper business as well and we've compiled new evidence
in a report called Pulping the Planet which shows exactly how its pulp and paper operations are threatening
the forests just as much as its palm oil business is.
Controlled by the Indonesian Widjaja
family, the Sinar Mas group is one of
the largest conglomerates in Indonesia
engaged in clearing rainforests and
destroying peatlands. The group also
has significant interests in coal mining,
amongst other sectors.
Sinar Mas’ pulp and paper division, Asia
Pulp and Paper (APP), is Indonesia’s
largest pulp and paper producer.
Posted by jamie — 5 July 2010 at 12:17pm
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In Brazil, moves are afoot to amend a piece of legislation which has been protecting the Amazon rainforest for over 70 years, and not for the better. If the changes are voted through, it could mean that the area of the Amazon which can be legally destroyed will double, and it's the backers of these changes - the agriculture, biofuels and energy barons - who stand to benefit as they argue that pesky forest laws are a hindrance to economic development.
Carlton Creek, who submitted a video to our HSBC advert challenge, has also produced this great little film which takes the ongoing discussions about attaching monetary worth to the natural services provided by our planet and turning them on their head. It's a neat little thought experiment into what the sales pitch for a company representing all life on Earth (or 'shareholders') would be like.
Elsewhere, artist and architect Maya Lin (previous work: Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC) is working on a collaborative, multi-media and multi-space project called What Is Missing? The current website highlights species which have been lost or are severely threatened, and if nothing else hovering your mouse over the map markers and hearing a soundscape of endangered creatures is haunting.
Posted by jossc — 24 June 2010 at 11:20am
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Volunteers are hard at work preparing the Greenpeace field for the 40th Glastonbury festival, now just two days away. Forest campaigner Ian explains why rainforest destruction is the central theme this year, and gives a personal demonstration of our very popular solar/biomass on-site showers...
You'll find a full listing of all the goodies available to festival goers in the Greenpeace field this time around on the official festival site.
Posted by jamie — 9 June 2010 at 4:29pm
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It's easy to
forget that, even though we moan about discredited political systems and
infringement of civil liberties, in the UK we don't actually have it that bad. It's rare
that anyone in the UK
would feel in danger for speaking out against the government but of course
that's not the case in other parts of the world. A shocking reminder of this
came with the news last week that a prominent human rights activist was
murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Floribert
Chebeya Bahizire was the executive director of La
Voix des Sans Voix (Voice of the Voiceless), an organisation he
set up in 1983 to expose human rights abuses and injustice in the DRC. But last
Wednesday in Kinshasa
he was found dead in his car, and his driver is still missing. According to the
news wires, there'll be an investigation into Bahizire's death but there are
questions over how revealing it will be. So much so that an open letter has
been sent to the president Joseph Kabila from over 50 human rights groups,
advocating an open, impartial inquiry.
Of
course, Greenpeace has a team in Kinshasa and
the challenges of campaigning there are markedly different than from a
comfortable office in London.
Intimidation and murder against those working to improve the lives of those who
are disenfranchised and disregarded is unacceptable wherever it happens, and
with the 50th anniversary of independence for the DRC approaching at
the end of the month, Bahizire's murder will cast a long shadow over the
celebrations.
HSBC's advertising creates a world where this monolithic financial institution truly empathises with the cultural, environmental and deeply symbolic relationships people have with trees and rainforests. It's a make-believe world, of course. The bank's actions speak far louder than the syrupy voiceovers and twee sentiments in their adverts, so just like BP's logo, they're ripe for a makeover. So why not make one of your own?
