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.
This shipment is just the tip of the iceberg, though. It's estimated that between 63 and 80 per cent of timber from the Brazilian Amazon is illegally logged, and this is contributing to the rising rates of deforestation in the region, not to mention Brazil's massive CO2 emissions (the fourth highest on the planet). And of course, as we've exposed time and time and time again, the EU imports huge amounts of timber from illegal and destructive sources each year.
Watch the slideshow below to find out how it gets here.
What's the answer? Better forest protection and management in the Amazon for one thing, and tough legislation in the EU to stop the dodgy lumber being sold in the market place. Following years of campaigning, the EU Commission is finally expected to publish a proposal for a potential law on timber products in May. We're hoping this proposal will be a tough one but there a lot of hurdles before it might one day become binding.
We - including the guys currently on top of those cranes - want the EU to get this legislation right and make sure that all timber entering the union does eventually come from legal and well-managed sources. Fingers crossed.
Update, 19 March: After a 24-hour occupation, last night our voluinteers left the ship's cranes and ended the action. And I'm also happy to say that the French government has promised to support new EU laws regulating timber imports.
