Posted by James Turner -
9 May 2012 at 4:16pm -
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The Rainbow Warrior is moored in the port city of Belem, here at the
mouth of the Amazon river in Brazil. It’s a historic city, over 400
years old, which was established in colonial times and has become a
thriving trade center ever since.
The Amazon is the planet's largest remaining rainforest, teeming with more wildlife than anywhere else on Earth.
Following years of intense pressure from the agribusiness sector, Brazil's parliament yesterday afternoon approved sweeping reforms to the country's forest protection law that spell destruction for the Amazon rainforest.
As the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was sailing down the Amazon I
participated in an event that was very different from our day-to-day
campaigning for Zero Deforestation in the Amazon. It was a suit and tie
summit in London organized by the Financial Times and the Brazilian
Government to discuss the future of Brazilian agriculture. It was a
star-studded affair with the heads of the Brazilian cattle, sugar cane,
chicken, beef and orange juice associations, two government ministers,
and Senator Katia Abreu, head of Brazil’s National Confederation of
Agriculture.
Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), the pulp and paper giant behind the
illegal timber scandal we exposed last month, has lost one of its largest
international investors. In March we released evidence from a
year-long investigation showing how illegal ramin was regularly
identified at APP’s main pulpmill in Indonesia, Indah Kiat Perawang.
Eleven companies were named at the time as having links to APP and
most, including Danone, Xerox and Mondi have acted to suspend any contracts with the APP.
The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior served as center stage for a flotilla assembly deep in the Amazon. Boats travelled,
some for more than a day, to join the assembly and give testimonials of
the destruction threatening their survival in the forest. The riverboats
tied lines between them to create a floating platform around the Rainbow Warrior
and passed a microphone between the families as they demanded
implementation on the laws governing their already protected land.
Activists declared the illegal farm not for sale with a sign reading "Forever green"
Activists from the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior joined local
community members from the Resex Verde para Sempre Reserve today to
declare an end to the sale of an illegal farm inside the protected area.
The "Not for Sale" sign installed on the land wrongfully up for auction
reads "Verde para Sempre" or "Forever Green".
Stockpiles of rainforest logs at APP's Indah Kiat Perawang pulp mill in Indonesia
Danone has released a statement confirming plans to phase out
supplies of paper and packaging products from Asia Pulp and Paper (APP).
The statement, which you can read here also confirms that the company intends to
develop a zero deforestation policy, which will cover all of the
commodities it buys that could be linked to deforestation. Danone joins
the likes of Nestle, Kraft, Unilever, Adidas and many more who have
already dropped APP.
Posted by Jess Miller -
2 April 2012 at 3:35pm -
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After months of investigations, activists have exposed an illegal logging operation underway in public lands in the Amazon. The illegal
timber was discovered inside the Rural Settlement Corta Corda, 140km from the city of Santarem, Para State.
After two days of travel through the Amazon, the Rainbow Warrior
arrived today in Santarem. Just a few days ago, we
called on you to join Brazilians, as they demand a Zero
Deforestation law to Save the Amazon. Today, we are in Santarem to meet
with more people from the Amazon to discuss the impacts of deforestation
and the need for a Zero Deforestation Law.
It is three weeks since we launched 'The
Ramin Paper Trail' exposing that the logyards at APP’s main pulp
mill in Indonesia are riddled with illegal ramin logs. We also released
evidence showing that 11 companies, including Xerox, had rainforest
fibre from APP in their products.
