Greenpeace protesters demonstrate as the Queen and President Lula pass by during his state visit

Greenpeace volunteers today took to The Mall in Brazilian football shirts to hold a silent vigil for the Amazon, as President Lula passed in a carriage procession with The Queen.

Lula, who is in Britain for a state visit, has presided over massive levels of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Greenpeace members held a huge banner at Duke of York steps reading: "GOD SAVE THE AMAZON" while more volunteers held placards in front of Lula with the same message, some in Portuguese. They wore Brazilian soccer shirts in recognition of the fact that an area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is lost every ten seconds in the Amazon.

Since he came to power in January 2003 an area of Amazon rainforest the size of the Republic of Ireland - nearly 70,000km² - has been cleared. Between August 2003 and July 2004 alone 27,200km² of Brazil's rainforest was destroyed, the second highest level ever recorded.

One of the Greenpeace protesters, Belinda Fletcher, said: "I came down to The Mall to let the Brazilian President know people across the globe are watching what he does in the Amazon. When the rainforest is set ablaze by giant agricultural interests or cleared by illegal loggers it's lost forever. President Lula has made the right noises and recently acted to protect large areas of the Amazon, but the simple fact is that under his leadership we have seen near record levels of rainforest destruction. He needs to stand up to the powerful agricultural and timber lobbies that threaten the people and environment in the Amazon."

Although Lula has made some positive steps in recent years, including the protection of nearly 180,000km² of rainforest and enforcement activities against illegal loggers and corrupt state officials, the Greenpeace protesters say he must do more to protect the Amazon.

The Brazilian Amazon faces a huge threat from illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and soya plantation owners. It has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. But it also presents one of the greatest opportunities for biodiversity conservation. The Amazon represents about 40 per cent of the world's remaining tropical rainforest. Yesterday Greenpeace turned the spotlight on one of the men held responsible for the deforestation - José Donizetti Pires de Oliveira. Greenpeace activists occupied a deforested area in a remote rainforest region and unfurled a huge 2,500 square metre banner with the message "100% forest crime". They were joined by local communities who symbolically planted native trees in the area. Donizetti reacted violently to the peaceful protest, intimidated the protestors and destroyed the banner (pictures available).

Belinda Fletcher added: "If Lula does the right thing there's still a chance to save the Amazon rainforest and develop an alternative, more environmentally responsible model of development for the world's most important rainforest. If he doesn't, current rates of destruction mean we could lose the entire Amazon rainforest in the next three or four decades."  

For images or more information contact the Greenpeace press office on 0207 865 8255.

Local foresters and Greenpeace volunteers mark land boundaries in Papua New Guinea

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, February 28, 2006
Greenpeace today launched a major initiative to help protect Asia Pacific's last remaining ancient rainforests - the so-called 'Paradise Forests' [1] - by unveiling its Global Forest Rescue Station in a remote part of Papua New Guinea.

Greenpeace volunteers from around the world will live and work alongside local landowners and eco-forestry trainers at the Global Forest Rescue Station, sited at Lake Murray in Western Province. They will help three Lake Murray tribes establish their rights over approximately 300,000 hectares of tribal territories by identifying, marking out and mapping their boundaries. This will help them protect the forests from destructive and illegal logging.

"Papua New Guinea's Kuni tribe has invited Greenpeace to set up this rescue station on their land. It will be a base to fast-track boundary marking the tribe's territories to save them from the logging industry and to showcase eco-forestry initiatives to the world," said Greenpeace Australia Pacific's Chief Executive Officer, Steve Shallhorn.

The launch was heralded by the arrival in Port Moresby of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, which received a traditional welcome by tribal groups and landowners.

Ken Mondiai, Head of the EcoForestry Forum, a network of environment groups working with Greenpeace, said: "We are honoured to welcome the Rainbow Warrior to mark the beginning of this exciting new approach to eco-forestry in Papua New Guinea."

Kuni clan leader, Sep Galeva, said: "We want to say no to loggers who come in and destroy everything. We want to do small scale logging by the landowners in a way that is sustainable and environment friendly."

The Paradise Forests are being logged faster than any other on Earth. In Papua New Guinea, less than one per cent of them have any form of protection and more than a quarter of a million hectares of primary forest are destroyed by logging companies each year. Globally, an area of ancient forest the size of a football pitch is destroyed every two seconds to grow products like soya for animal feed or to make products like toilet paper, wooden flooring and plywood.

"This new initiative is part of a global effort to protect the world's last ancient forests [2]. Unless action like ours in Papua New Guinea is taken worldwide, vast numbers of species of plants and animals will become extinct, rainfall patterns will be disrupted and the global climate will change even faster than it is now," said Steve Shallhorn.

After Port Moresby, the Rainbow Warrior will sail on 'Forest Crime Patrol' to draw attention to ongoing illegal logging across the entire region and to promote sustainable forestry.

Download the Greenpeace report: "Paradise Under Threat" (Adobe PDF format)

Notes to Editors:
[1] The Paradise Forests stretch from South East Asia, across the islands of Indonesia and on towards Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in the Pacific.

[2] The Global Forest Rescue Station is part of the Greenpeace campaign to highlight the crisis faced by the forests and oceans in Asia Pacific and the rest of the world. In the lead up to the Summit for Life on Earth, the meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity which begins on March 20th in Brazil, Greenpeace is calling on governments to establish a comprehensive network of protected areas around the world with effective law enforcement and management.

Wolseley Builder Centre, Stoke-on-Trent

20th October 2005: One of the biggest builders' merchants in the UK has today pulled illegally logged rainforest timber from its shelves, and suspended all further supplies.

The move from Wolseley, who own over 200 Build Centers across the country, follows a major investigation by Greenpeace. The environment group tracked timber from the rainforests of Papua New Guinea to builders' merchants in the UK, via mills in China where the illegal timber was effectively 'laundered' and transformed into plywood.

The companies logging this timber are not only linked to environmental destruction, but also to serious human rights abuses, including torture and rape.

Pat Venditti, head of Greenpeace's forests campaign, said: "This is great news for the world's last rainforests, and for people across the world who depend on them.

"Wolseley's commitment shows that builders' merchants can easily avoid stocking illegally logged rainforests timber that is directly linked to human rights abuses.

"The Government must now ban this illegal trade, rather than leaving it up to individual companies to act."

The Wolseley Group is a leading supplier of building materials to the professional market. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Until today, Wolseley bought Chinese plywood from International Plywood. This account is believed to be worth £00,000 a month.

Yesterday, Greenpeace blockaded the Governments environment department in protest at the tonnes of illegal timber from the worlds last rainforests that continues to flood into the UK.

The logging industry in Papua New Guinea is dominated by Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau, a company that has been directly linked not only to environmental destruction, but also to human rights abuses including torture and rape. Illegally logged timber from Rimbunan Hijau, and other companies, can be found as plywood at Wolseley Build Centers and other builders' merchants throughout the UK.

China is by far the largest importer of rainforest destruction in the world. For every ten tropical logs shipped from the world's threatened rainforests, five are destined for China.

More information

Call the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.

Download the Greenpeace report, Partners in Crime: The UK timber trade, Chinese sweatshops and Malaysian robber barons in Papua New Guinea's rainforests here (PDF format).

Meetings with remarkable trees.jpg

31st March sees the launch of a new book by author Ken Finn. "My journey with a remarkable tree" documents the author's search for the fabled Spirit Trees of Cambodia. It is a journey that lays bare what's happening to the forests, wildlife and people of Cambodia and how that affects us.

Ken witnesses the destruction of spirit trees, 1000's of years old, by illegal loggers. He follows the tree's path from the forest, through the wood mill and processing plant and onto the shop floor as garden furniture for our homes. Along the way he witnesses first hand the systematic and thoughtless destruction of ancient forests for immediate economic gain, and the operations of a corrupt regime intent on turning diversity into monoculture, and forest into chipboard for quick profit.

Greenpeace campaigner Belinda Fletcher said, "This book exposes what the real cost of your garden table set can be. The destruction of forests that have taken centuries to evolve, the disappearance of animals that depend on them and the abuse of human rights as people are kicked off their traditional lands by robber baron loggers."

For people who want to ensure that the garden furniture they buy comes from environmentally and socially responsible sources and not from ancient forests, Greenpeace are launching a new user-friendly online consumer guide to garden furniture. You can search for your local store to see where their garden furniture is coming from and whether the gazebos or recliners on sale are certified to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which ensures timber products are from legal and well managed sources.

Ken Finn is supporting the Greenpeace Book Campaign, which aims to encourage the book publishing industry to stop sourcing paper from ancient forest regions and instead to move towards 'ancient forest friendly' paper (1). Greenpeace worked with Ken's publisher, Eye books, to help source a 30% FSC certified paper for the printing of this book. (2)

Notes
(1) At least 30% of the wood fibre in the book will come from well-managed forests independently certified according to the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The remainder of the fibre will come from controlled sources which exclude wood harvested from forest areas where traditional or civil rights are violated, from non FSC certified forest areas that have high conservation values which are threatened, from genetically modified trees, from illegally harvested wood, or from natural forests that have been converted to plantations or non forest use. (2) Ancient forest friendly papers are those that maximise recycled content with any virgin fibre coming from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified sources.

For more information, an advance copy of the book, or to interview the author contact Dan at Eye Books on 020 8743 3276.

For more information about the Greenpeace book campaign call Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.

Gorilla from Africa, under threat from illegal logging

Greenpeace are urging UK timber importers to boycott the Swiss-German Danzer Group. The call follows investigations which found that Danzer are involved in bribery, corruption, illegal logging, suspected forgery of official documents and carrying out business dealings with an arms trafficker, blacklisted by the UN Security Council (UNSC).

Danzer is one of the world's largest international traders in tropical roundwood, sliced wood and veneers and one of the largest suppliers of tropical timber to the UK market. The company sources timber predominantly from West and Central Africa and has timber concessions covering more than four million hectares of rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the neighbouring Republic of Congo alone.

A report detailing the results of Greenpeace's investigations into Danzer's global operations has been mailed to all major UK companies involved in importing timber from the company, and end users who may be using African hardwood products. These include International Timber (part of the Saint-Gobain group), Smee Timber and James Latham. It exposes how the company is involved in:

(1) Bribery and corruption: Internal documents reveal how Danzer's African operations regularly engage in bribery. The Swiss Attorney-General is currently investigating whether the company should be prosecuted under new international anti-corruption laws which make it a crime to 'offer, promise or give a bribe to a foreign public official in order to obtain to retain international business deals'.

(2) Financing illegal logging in Cameroon, through its financial and trade links with logging company Mba Mba Georges, which has been documented as being involved in extensive illegal logging in Cameroon.

(3) Trading with known arms traffickers: Details how Interholco, a Swiss based subsidiary of Danzer, has historically and is still today buying logs trafficked by a known arms and diamond trafficker Gus Kouwenhouven. Dutch born Kouwenhouven was a key figure in the trade in illegal arms to Liberia during the reign of the warlord Charles Taylor. He is subject to a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) travel ban and the UNSC have also called for his assets to be frozen to prohibit him from 'using misappropriated funds and property to interfere in the restoration of peace and stability in Liberia'.

(4) Fraud: Danzer's Liberian partner company, the Inland Logging Company (now dormant), has recently been accused of tax fraud by the Liberian authorities.

(5) Suspected forgery of official documents: Danzer Group employees are suspected to have forged certification of origin and other documents for timber exports from a number of African countries.

Greenpeace Senior Forest Campaigner, Pat Venditti said: "Almost without exception, companies like the Danzer Group have knowingly chosen to continue laundering timber from illegal and destructive sources, often from countries governed by corrupt regimes where rogue logging companies operate unhindered."

"Purchasing timber products from Danzer is like buying the chainsaws that are tearing apart Africa's last remaining rainforests," continued Mr Venditti. "Given the illegal and suspect activities exposed in this report, it is clear the EU must act to ban further imports of illegally logged timber, and companies must begin to avoid timber from companies like Danzer engaged in illegal or suspect activities."

The rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Cameroon and Gabon are the last refuge for threatened species such as the lowland gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants. However, it is estimated that only one third of the original African forests remain and experts consider that three-quarters of what remains is under threat, mostly by the logging industry.

Further information
Read a full copy of the report.

For more information contact Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.