A month ago, I encountered this vessel in Papua waters while I was on board the Rainbow Warrior. Our activists protested against this shipment as it was loaded. Now we are continuing the protest, to put pressure on the Japanese government and the buyers not to import this destructive and illegally sourced product.

It was a windy and cool morning. We drove for about 15 minutes and arrived at the port of Yokohama – a very big and famous port. As well as port facilities, it has a big amusement centre and aquarium. We went directly to the designated berth in the port area. I could see a big cargo vessel was approaching; it was the Ardhianto!

“Konnichiwa, Ardhianto!” I whispered to myself. I had mixed feelings – happy that it arrived, but at the same time I also felt bad. It carried destructive and illegally sourced timber product from Indonesia. I found it difficult to answer when one of the team jokingly asked me, “How do you feel Hapsoro, when you finally see your brother is coming?” The name of the ship is also the name of an Indonesian male. It is a very short name, like mine.

I saw some port workers help the ship’s crew tie its mooring line. The forklift drivers arrived by minibus. Everybody was busy, including us. Our photographer, who is also our videographer, prepared his equipment, as did our guest, a cameraman from Reuters (news agency). We couldn’t take our eye off the Ardhianto.

About 15 minutes later, the Ardhianto activated its crane, opened its hull and lifted two forklifts inside its hatch. They were using the forklifts to hasten the process. The crane started unloading plywood. Our documentation team leapt into action, shooting images from every different angle. We didn’t want to miss the moment when plywood from the Paradise Forests landed in Japan.

We hung two banners in English and Japanese: “Is this timber legal?” This was a very significant moment for Maya, one of the activists, and myself, as we had both witnessed the loading of this shipment in Indonesia.

We went closer to the vessel. Now I saw it clearly; the plywood came from Papua. It came in boxes which has FUJI brand and “Made in Indonesia” written on it. It also had the name of port destination, Yokohama Japan, and an abbreviated mill name (HNI). That means Henrison Iriana and is the name of a timber mill owned byKayu Lapis Indonesia.

It all clearly proved that this company is selling our Paradise Forests to satisfy the market for cheap wood products in Japan.

I recalled the sad stories told by the people we met in Papua. They lost their forest. They lost the opportunity to continue their traditional, family life. All because wood-hungry consumers and greedy companies that don’t care if they are destroying the forest home of indigenous people, the beautiful animals and the magnificent plant species.

We should continue this fight. The fight to save Paradise Forest!