forests

Boarding the Galina III yesterday © Greenpeace/Karl Joseph

Yesterday afternoon, the crew of one of our ships - the Arctic Sunrise - swung into action in the French port of Caen. Their mission: to prevent a shipment of Amazon timber, acquired from companies linked to illegal logging activities, from entering the EU. And after nearly 24 hours, they're still going strong.

The timber is aboard the Galina III and, as it tried to enter the port, five Greenpeace volunteers (including a group from the UK) climbed aboard where they attached themselves to two of the ship's cranes. Since then, the Galina has been unable to dock to unload its cargo, a mixture of timber species with wonderfully exotic names: amarelao, macaranduba, ipe, garapeira, cumaru and jarana to name a few. And as I write, the team on the cranes is still holding out.

Greenpeace volunteers and Lake Murray clansmen marking out boundaries in 2006

Long-time readers may remember that two years ago a team of Greenpeace campaigners and volunteers arrived at Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea to establish a forest rescue station. They were invited by local clans to help mark out and document the boundaries of their traditional lands, and also to train people in eco-forestry techniques.

Last week, the first fruits of that project were delivered in the form of a shipment of timber from Lake Murray arriving in Sydney. Sep Galeva, a landowner and one of the key players in the eco-timber project, explained to the press how working on this community initiative has helped protect their part of the rainforest from industrial logging.

An illegal logging camp in the Amazon © Greenpeace/Daniel Beltra

Stung by the recent rise in deforestation rates in the Amazon, the Brazilian government is cracking down on the illegal loggers who are ripping up the rainforest; their year-long initiative - known as Operation Fire Belt - is targeting areas where deforestation has been most acute.

The guys at Biofuelwatch have been cooking up a week of protests around (what else?) biofuels. Like us, they're concerned about the rising demand for biodiesel etc and the implications that has for the climate, as well as deforestation, food prices and a host of other related issues.

Last year, we heard the excellent news that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon had dropped for the third consecutive year. However, yesterday came the rather less welcome news that those rates had changed and have moved in an upward direction.

Yet more questions have been raised in political circles about biofuel targets. Following last week's statements from the European environment commissioner, Defra's chief scientist and the Royal Society, a parliamentary committee has released its own report which says that pursuing mandatory targets without any form of sustainability criteria attached is not a good idea.

We could be witnessing a seismic and very exciting shift in how UK and EU policies on biofuels are being perceived in official circles. Both the EU Environment Commissioner and Defra's own chief scientist today went on record to say that current plans to vastly increase the amount of fuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel might need to be reconsidered.