From: ACTIV-L via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.woodworking,alt.save.the.earth,talk.environment
Subject: "Rainforest Destruction Has Many Victims"
Date: 19 Dec 1992 21:47:51 GMT
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu

[From EcoNet reg.samerica Conference]
[Also Posted to misc.activism.progressive (by Somebody Else)]

================================================================
=> From: James Binder <jbinder@igc.org>
=> Subject: IPS:Rainforest

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

an inter press service feature

by candy gourlay

london, nov 05 (ips) -- in europe, the average middle class
homeowner need only drive to the ''do-it-yourself'' (diy)
warehouses that now adorn the outskirts of most large towns to
fulfill his or her domestic dreams and aspirations.

they are built out of town to provide thousands of square metres
packed with home-assemble bathrooms, living rooms, bedrooms,
kitchens, and for outdoors, garden sheds, trellises, pergolas and
patios -- all under one roof.

yet these prized hardwood toilet seats and kitchen cabinets have
been responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in the
third world, according to environmental pressure groups.

killer floods in the philippines, the murder of indigenous
brazilian forest dwellers by illegal lumberjacks, africans without
livelihoods -- the destruction of tropical rainforests for the
sake of stylish european mod-cons can be measured in human lives.

during the 1980s, 142,000 square kilometres of rainforest were
lost annually, leaving only 7.7 million square kilometres of
tropical rainforest cover on the world. in some countries such as
the ivory coast, the rate of loss is 15 percent per year.

according to 1991 figures, britain, france and the netherlands
are the biggest importers of tropical timber in the european
community (ec). britain alone imports more than 2.5 million cubic
metres of wood, most of it for the two billion dollar kitchen
furniture market.

the ivory coast has lost most of its rainforest, followed by
nigeria, vietnam, thailand and the philippines -- where 5,000 died
recently in floods blamed on deforestation. the last two nations
now have logging controls, while others -- notably ghana,
indonesia and brazil -- prohibit certain types of timber exports.

yet the lack of controls in the importing countries themselves
has helped unscrupulous timber firms and corrupt officials to
flout these efforts with ease.

''(banning exports of timber) are useful steps,'' says simon
counsel, rainforest campaigner for the friends of the earth
environmental group, ''but what happens is that less scrupulous
countries with less controls just fill the space.''

friends of the earth estimates, for example, that european
companies in collusion with some ghanaian timber firms stole at
least 50 million dollars from the country in the 1980s with the
plunder of some 250 square kilometres of the country's rainforest.

in july 1991, the british defence ministry pledged in its first
environment manual to stop buying tropical hardwoods. a month
later, the it accepted a shipment of ghanaian iroko to repair a
historic ship. according to the british government itself, iroko
will become commercially extinct by 1999 at present logging rates.

in brazil, pirate loggers murdered indigenous people such as the
korubo, tikuna and awa-guaja to ''(ransack) the forests in
protected areas and supply (britain) with kitchens and lavatory
seats,'' says brazil's ex-environment minister jose lutzenberger.

fired by president collor for criticising government corruption
in the timber industry, lutzenberger said in an open letter to the
british public in april that the trade in brazilian mahogany and
other tropical woods was ''out of control.''

he accused amazon timber traders of often wielding more power
than most government departments and having corrupted many of the
people charged with the protection of the indians and forests.

''as there is little we can do to stop the supply, it is up to
the people of britain (which buys 52 percent of brazilian mahogany
production) and other first world countries to stop the demand,''
pleaded lutzenberger. ''you are dealing with human lives.''

friends of the earth (foe), world wide fund for nature uk and
survival international are lobbying the british government to
adopt an integrated policy on forests, including an immediate halt
to imports of illegally produced timber and completely phasing out
timber imports from unsustainable sources by the end of 1995.

the environmental groups are also targeting the diy firms, the
main tropical timber purchaser in britain. so far, three of
britain's six big diy chains have agreed to phase out tropical
wood from unsustainable sources by 1995.

''there has been no consumer advice, no leadership on this
issue,'' says foe's tony juniper, ''thus the actions of a few
companies are very positive. ordinary people are very confused
about the issue. they know that it exists but the trouble is the
materials distributed by the industry present quite a different
picture which confuses customers.''

campaigners bewail the proliferation of tags proclaiming many
tropical timbers on sale as ''from sustainable sources''. in
truth, less than one percent of the world's tropical timber are
produced in a sustainable way.