Greenpeace volunteers scale Admiralty Arch

Greenpeace volunteers scale Admiralty Arch as investigation exposes government's use of illegal timber

The Prime Minister's efforts to portray himself as an environmental champion suffered another set-back today as Greenpeace revealed that the renovation of his own Cabinet Office building is using illegally logged rainforest timber. The refurbishment is using plywood hoardings made with illegally logged timber sourced from the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. The Whitehall building is home to Mr Blair's own Strategy Unit.

At 6.45am this morning 14 Greenpeace climbers scaled the Admiralty Arch wing of the building. The volunteers have hung a huge banner which reads: 'REPEAT OFFENDER! BLAIR'S TRASHED ANOTHER RAINFOREST!' Other activists are covering the rainforest timber with plywood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).(1) Later today 30 year-old Sam Moko from Papua New Guinea will take a piece of the illegal timber to Downing Street with a demand that Tony Blair stop fuelling the destruction of his rainforest home.

The Cabinet Office building was at the centre of a controversy in 2002 when it was revealed that a previous building project used African rainforest timber. On that occasion Tony Blair told the Commons the project was using sustainably sourced timber before later back-tracking. The following year the new Home Office building was found to be using illegal rainforest plywood from Indonesia (2).

Greenpeace executive director Stephen Tindale is on top of Admiralty Arch. He said: "When it comes to trashing the world's last rainforests Tony Blair is a serial offender. It's hard to believe illegal and unsustainable timber has been found at the home of his own strategy unit. What better illustration could there be that his government's timber procurement policy is totally ineffectual? Blair has a history of talking up his green credentials, but it's about time he actually took effective action. The first thing he needs to do is to ban the import of illegal timber into the UK market place."

The Greenpeace volunteers have hoisted their own campaign flag on the famous Admiralty flagpole in the hope that Britain can lead the world in forest protection.

Central government procurement accounts for approximately 20% of the timber used in the UK, while the broader public sector accounts for as much as 40%.(3) In 2001 Tony Blair promised that the government would only purchase legal and sustainable timber. This commitment followed the introduction of a timber procurement policy the previous year, requiring all departments and agencies to 'actively seek' to buy such timber. However, a combination of weak guidelines and failed implementation has meant that the impact of the policy remains limited and in the case of the plywood at Admiralty Arch is failing to prevent illegal timber from being used.

The magnificent forests of Papua New Guinea form part of the few remaining significant ancient forests on earth. It is home to wildlife such as the tree kangaroo, the world's largest pigeon, the largest butterfly on earth (the Queen Alexandra's birdwing, with a wing span of over 11 inches) and the world's longest lizard, along with over 3000 species of orchid. But so-called 'robber barons' are plundering the rainforest with impunity. Their crimes range from illegal logging to corruption, torture and rape. A World Bank funded independent review examining logging in Papua New Guinea found widespread and serious illegalities across the industry. These findings were reinforced by a UK government funded report which found extensive environmental damage, corruption and social upheaval in logging areas.

Before delivering illegal timber to Downing Street Sam Moko from Papua New Guinea said: "Logging companies are harvesting our forest at an alarming rate and we are questioning the survival of our future generations as forest dependent communities. People are now faced with environmental, social and health problems as a result of the bad practices by the foreign logging companies. Local people have no money to pursue court cases against the companies. What can we do? I call on Tony Blair to ban the import of illegal timber."

Greenpeace is calling on the government to finally take effective action to end its role in forest destruction by ensuring that it uses only FSC-certified timber on its construction sites and introducing a ban on the import of illegal timber into the UK  the only way to stop this destructive trade.

Download the full background briefing: Repeat Offender: How Tony Blair's government continues to trash the world's rainforests

For more contact Greenpeace on 07801 212967 / 0207 8658255

Video and stills available, including clipreel of PNG rainforest destruction and previous Greenpeace protests over government timber procurement.

Notes:

(1) Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber is the best guarantee that timber products come from environmentally and socially responsible sources.

(2) Previous Greenpeace exposes include:

Cabinet Office: In April 2002 Greenpeace occupied the Cabinet Office at 22 Whitehall and declared it an ancient forest crime scene. This followed an undercover investigation which revealed that the government was installing new doors and windows made from sapele, sourced from companies known to be logging illegally in the rainforests of Cameroon.

Home Office: In June 2003 Greenpeace occupied the construction site of the new Home Office headquarters at 2 Marsham Street in Westminster after finding plywood from Indonesia's last rainforests, supplied by companies notorious for illegal logging, corruption and human rights abuses.

(3) Environmental Audit Committee, House of Commons (18th January 2006), 'Sustainable Timber'

Brian Baring, traditional PNG landowner, makes his point outside Alchemy Partners UK office

Customary PNG landowner asks the timber trade to source 'good' wood

Today, Brian Baring, of the Gingilang clan on the north coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG), delivered a giant letter to Alchemy Partners, asking them to stop daughter company Montague L Meyer from trashing PNG's rainforests for plywood. Logging in PNG is some of the worst on the planet, with virtually all industrial logging being illegal.

Customary Landowner Brian Baring says, "I have seen our forests destroyed by foreign companies. They do not respect us or our culture, or our sacred sites. They run over our food gardens with their machinery. They drive their trucks and bulldozers through our streams polluting it with oil and mud with no regard that people downstream drink from those streams. They take the trees they want and destroy many many more to get to the trees they want."

Read Brian's account of how illegal logging is destroying the Gingilang way of life

The magnificent Paradise Forest of PNG is home to wildlife such as the tree kangaroo and the largest butterfly on earth - the Queen Alexandra's birdwing, with a wing span of over 11 inches - as well as millions of indigenous people who depend on this forest for their livelihood and way of life. Yet logging companies are voraciously plundering the rainforest, and the country could be logged out in 15 years.

He continued "I am in Europe to bring the message of my people to companies like Alchemy Partners and Montague Meyer and ask them to stop buying products that are made from the forests of Papua New Guinea, stolen from our land and our people."

Last year a major Greenpeace investigation uncovered a criminal trail of illegally logged rainforest timber from the world's largest tropical island, which is 'laundered' through China before arriving on shop shelves in the UK. Since then many companies, like Wolseley Build Centers, have agreed to remove all Chinese tropical hardwood plywood from their stores, however Montague L Meyer continues to sell it into the UK market place. Recent microscopic analysis of timber sold by the company has confirmed that it is made of Bintangor and other tropical species.

Greenpeace launches Forest Rescue station in PNG

During his UK trip, Mr Baring and Greenpeace also met members of the Timber Trade Federation (1) who have suspended trade in plywood made from PNG's rainforests and discussed the sourcing of more environmentally and socially responsible products.

Belinda Fletcher, Greenpeace Campaigner said, "The Timber Trade Federation has recognized that sourcing from Papua New Guinea (PNG) is currently unacceptable. They are now looking at domestic Chinese alternatives that are not sourced from ancient forests. Montague Meyer is one of the pariahs of the UK trade who continue to source from PNG."

She continued "There are good alternatives. Buy timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council - it's the best way to guarantee that timber has come from environmentally and socially responsible sources."

Greenpeace is calling for legislation to ban the import of illegal timber into the UK and Europe and to ensure that all timber imports are legal and from well managed forests.

Notes

(1) Attendees included representatives of the Timber Trade Federation, Caledonian Plywood, FEPCO, Premier Forest Products and Graeme Holburn.

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.

Activists boarding the MV Greveno to stop it unloading illegal timber

Greenpeace today demanded that the Belgian Government seize a huge cargo ship in the port of Antwerp loaded with timber from Indonesia's rainforests where logging is threatening the survival of orang-utans and tigers. Greenpeace boarded the ship at 15:00 hrs this afternoon in an attempt to stop it delivering its cargo to the Belgian port of Antwerp. Greenpeace researchers have been tracking the cargo ship since it was loaded with rainforest timber in Indonesia in early February.

The Greenpeace ship the MY Esperanza has been following the MV Greveno for several days after it entered European waters. Greenpeace volunteers have today used inflatables, launched from a second Greenpeace ship, the MV Argus, and caving hook ladders to board the Greveno. Two activists are currently on board the ship. This was the sixth attempt to board the ship this week. The load is destined for Antwerp, from where some of the timber will be transported to The Netherlands.

The timber onboard is being supplied by Korindo, a company proven to be using illegal timber from the last rainforests of Indonesia and Tjipta, whose logs come from an area where illegal and destructive logging is threatening the survival of the Sumatran tiger. An Indonesian Government investigation has found that Korindo buys from notorious timber barons commonly known to obtain timber from an orang-utan refuge, Tanjung Puting National Park (2), where aerial photography by Greenpeace has recently revealed further evidence of illegal clear-cutting. Latest estimates show that nearly half the national park has been damaged.

Greenpeace International forest campaigner, Gavin Edwards said, 'The logging, export and sale of this timber is nothing short of organised crime. Behind each sheet of plywood that originates from Indonesia's rainforests there is a web of criminal activity, corruption and bloodshed. Governments worldwide must reject this criminal timber and shut down the market for illegal wood before the Indonesian rainforest is gone and orang-utans and tigers are only found in zoos.'

In Indonesia up to 90% of all logging is illegal and the industry is linked to corruption, violence and human rights abuses (3). A World Bank/WWF report concluded that probably every single log in Indonesia is 'characterised by the breaking or manipulating of some regulation' (4). Mr Prakosa, Indonesia's Minister of Forestry, admitted on 11 March 2004 at a press conference, that illegal logging was out of control.

Indonesia's rainforest is disappearing faster than any other rainforest in the world. An area the size of Belgium is destroyed every year and experts predict that by 2010 most of Indonesia's lowland rainforests will be gone from Sumatra and Borneo. The Indonesian rainforest is a haven for wildlife, with the longest list of endangered species in the world. This includes the orang-utan, which is only found in Sumatra and Borneo (5) and whose numbers have halved in just 10 years and the Sumatran tiger, of which less than 500 remain. The World Bank has described Indonesia as facing 'a species extinction spasm of planetary proportions' (6).

Fifty million people depend on the rainforest for hunting, fishing and making rattan and honey (7). If the forest is lost, their livelihoods will be too.

While many European Governments have spoken out against the illegal trade in timber, tougher rules are required to stop illegally logged timber being imported. Greenpeace believes that the EU must introduce new legislation under the FLEGT Action Plan (8) to make it a crime to import and market illegally logged timber and wood products.

Hapsoro, a campaigner from the Indonesian environmental group Telapak (9), said: 'Cargoes of timber like this one are driving rainforest destruction and human rights abuses in Indonesia so that rich countries can get cheap plywood. Indonesia needs help to enforce its laws, that is why European Governments must now take action to ban the import of illegal timber.'

For more information please contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255 / 07801 212967.

Editors Notes:
(1) The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label provides the only truly independent guarantee that timber products have come from well-managed forests.
(2) Korindo's Ariabima Sari mill, where this plywood was loaded, was inspected by Indonesian Department of Forestry Inspectors in May 2003 and found to be using illegal logs purchased from the notorious Rasyid family, well known for trade in illegal timber from Tanjung Putting National Park (see for example 'Illegal Logging in 'Tanjung Puting National Park' at www.eia-international.org. The mill is also breaching Indonesian regulation PP13 1995, through operating at approximately 165% its licensed capacity. In late 2003 Korindo refused to participate in a UK trade initiative to assess the 'legality' of Indonesian timber operations. This was confirmed in a meeting with the UK Timber Federation in February 2004. The mill has also been supplied by Muslim Halim, another company previously known to be using illegal timber from Tanjung Puting National Park. The second company who's plywood is onboard, is Tjipta who operate in Sumatra without access to their own forest concession. The company purchases timber from the open market in an area renowned for illegal logging.
(3) 'Partners in Crime: A Greenpeace Investigation of the links between the UK and Indonesia's timber barons' at www.saveordelete.com
(4) 'Partners in Crime: A Greenpeace Investigation of the links between the UK and Indonesia's timber barons' at www.saveordelete.com and D W Brown WWF/World Bank Alliance, 17 October 2002.
(5) WWF estimate, Press release 'Orang-utans face extinction' 12 January 2004.
(6) 'Partners in Crime: A Greenpeace Investigation of the links between the UK and Indonesia's timber barons' at www.saveordelete.com
(7) World Bank (2001), Indonesia: Environment and Natural Resource Management in a Time of Transition.
(8) The European FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance & Trade) Action Plan was presented by the European Commission to the European Member States in May 2003. It aims at developing a new set of measures to combat illegal logging and related trade.
(9) Telapak is an Indonesian NGO working on environmental issues including illegal logging.