Forests
April 12, 2007Meeting with Mr Benn
Following on from the release yesterday of our major new report about the con in the Congo, our campaigners met with Hilary Benn to ask what he intends to do about it. As the UK governor of the World Bank, he is extremely well-placed to make a big noise about it at the bank's spring meeting this weekend.
He's clearly concerned, and has agreed to talk directly with Paul Wolfowitz, Head of the World Bank, about the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He's also visiting the country later this month, and so he'll also talk to representatives from the government while he's there. But concern just isn't enough, and real action has to be taken on the ground to prevent the wholesale ransacking of the rainforest by the big logging companies.
We'll let you know what transpires at the World Bank meeting, but in the interim we need you to keep emailing Benn, pointing out to him that a crate of beer for vast tracts of valuable rainforest is a bum deal of the highest order - write to him now.
What a carve up: how the logging industry in the Congo is out of control
So, the Congo rainforest: as I mentioned last week, it's vast, lush and under threat, and we can now reveal what's going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where around half the forest is situated. As you can see, our old friends in the international logging industry are causing havoc, wrecking the rainforest and forcing local people further into poverty.
Time is ticking for the African rainforests
In recent years, we've put a lot of effort into highlighting the threats facing what remains of the world's forests in North America, South America, and South East Asia. But there's one major area we haven't touched on for some time now: Africa. That's all about to change, however, and you'll be hearing more about what we've been up to in the coming weeks and months.
But first let's set the scene. The forest of the Congo basin stretches across central Africa, about two-thirds of which lies within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but also covers parts of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo. And it's huge: only the Amazon rainforest is bigger. Millions of people depend on it for their survival, including semi-nomadic pygmy communities, and it's another biodiversity hotspot: forest elephants and three of the great ape species - gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos - all form part of a rich ecosystem.
It's a story familiar from other areas of our forest work, but all this is being threatened by our old friend, industrial logging. Huge tracts of the forest are being opened up by logging companies with hunters and miners following in their wake into previously inaccessible areas.
Let it out for forest destruction
It's an absolute gift when companies who are being less than kind to the environment have an advertising campaign that, with a few tweaks, can be subverted to expose their dodgy deeds. Such a treat came in the form of the Kleenex 'Let It Out' adverts that have been showing in various countries (here's an example for those who haven't seen it) and the guys in the US and Canada running the Kleercut campaign jumped on it.
Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Kleenex, Andrex and other big name tissue brands, are chewing their way through the Boreal Forests of North America, all to make the stuff we wipe our nether regions on and flush down the toilet. Is that a sensible use of natural resources? Of course not, so in the latest action a crack team of activists were dispatched to New York City where a camera crew were filming material for a new Kleenex advert.
Thanks to Shedwa for sharing this video of what happened...
Indonesia gets new world record: fastest forest logger
This morning, the streets of Jakarta were buzzing with the sound of chainsaws. It wasn't a loggers' convention causing all the racket but protesters sawing through a huge wooden wall depicting Indonesia's rainforests. They were commiserating a new world record as opposed to celebrating it, and with good reason because Indonesia stands to gain the dubious title of the World's Fastest Forest Destroyer.
We've been pointing out for a long time that the Paradise Forests of South East Asia are disappearing faster than anywhere else on Earth and, according to a new UN report on the world's forests, Indonesia is the juggernaut behind this massive rate of deforestation. Brazil clears more forest each year but, because Indonesia has a smaller area of forest, it's disappearing much more quickly - two per cent is lost each year compared to Brazil's 0.6 per cent.
With the help of some politicians, musicians and celebrities, our South East Asian office were making the point that this was not something the country should be proud of. This was more than just a symbolic gesture though as they will be making an official submission to the Guinness Book of World Records. Not the kind of thing that would have appeared on Record Breakers, I'll bet.
Russian forestry agency launches investigation into illegal logging
Amidst all the current hoo-hah about Trident, we have some good news from Russia or, at least, the potential for good news.
Back in September, our Partners in Crime report revealed how Finland is importing vast quantities of timber logged illegally in neighbouring Russia. According to federal law, all forestry management plans must undergo an Environmental Impact Assessment - in the republic of Karelia these assessments are not being done yet the local government continues to hand out logging permits.
However, this week the Head of the Federal Forestry Agency in Russia has ordered an immediate investigation into the problem, appointing a commission to report back next month. This is a huge step forward and acknowledges the scale of the problem - of all the timber felled in Karelia, the majority is illegal.
Book industry is turning green but huge publisher Hachette bucks the trend
We haven't made a lot of fuss about the Book Campaign for a while, but it's been slowly simmering in the background and the results have been pretty impressive. Publishers have been keen to adopt forest friendly policies so they use more recycled paper and paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and to date over 40 per cent of UK publishers are on the road to going green.
Big names such as Random House, Bloomsbury, Penguin, HarperCollins, and Egmont are all on board and browsing through the shelves you'll see a growing number of bestsellers printed on well-sourced paper.
Amazon soya campaign wins BBC food gong
Usually, winning a campaign is good enough in itself but winning an award on top of that has to be the cherry on the cake. Or, in this case, the sesame seeds on top of a squishy white bun.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had been nominated by the good listeners of BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme as part of their annual Food and Farming Awards for our Amazon soya campaign, of which the giant chickens running around McDonald's were a part. The judges agreed and at a swish awards dinner in Birmingham last Friday, we won the Derek Cooper Award for "a great model of how to research food issues across continents".
Our senior forests campaigner Pat Venditti was there to collect the gong but was unusually coy when the presenter asked if tracking soya imports into the UK meant a lot of hanging about in lay-bys. And the food? Apparently, it was "not bad".
Greenpeace nominated for BBC food award
When our volunteers set out in their chicken suits to invade McDonald's branches earlier this year, I'm fairly certain the last thing on their minds was any kind of public accolade for their efforts. The global campaign to highlight how food companies were complicit in destroying the Amazon rainforest through their use of Amazon-grown soya made headlines around the world and clearly touched the hearts of Radio 4 listeners because we've been nominated for a gong in their Food and Farming Awards.
Most of the categories are turned over to shops and producers who go that extra mile in provide quality grub but we come under the Derek Cooper Special Award for, and I quote, "their work raising awareness of the ethical and environmental dimensions of food production, in particular their soya campaign". It was a public vote that got us into the nominations but it's the steely minds of the judging panel that will make the final decision, and with distinguished competition in the form of the Caroline Walker Trust and the Rt Hon Michael Meacher MP, it'll be tough. Tune in Sunday 26 November to see if we win.
Finland joins the Golden Chainsaw hall of infamy
It's not awards season but what the hell. We're always ready to dish out the gongs, particularly when poor environmental track records are going unrewarded. There's nothing like an oddly-shaped statuette to give credit where credit is due. The Golden Chainsaws are becoming something of a Greenpeace tradition. They're not annual, they're not voted for by a secret cabal of society members, but when it comes to wanton destruction of forest landscapes, they ensure the efforts of those responsible do not go unremarked.
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