COMPANIES THAT DESTROY CANADIAN FOREST

[Anonymous]

Companies Revealed to be Purchasing Forest Destruction
Three Logging Firms Responsible for Majority of Destruction of Boreal Forest
August 
2007 Washington, United States — The latest Greenpeace investigative
report reveals many high profile companies are fueling the destruction
of Canada’s Boreal Forest to create everyday consumer products. Best
Buy, Grand & Toy, Toys “R” Us, Time Inc., Sears, Coles/Indigo,
Penguin Books US and Harlequin are all customers of logging and pulp
companies Abitibi-Consolidated, Bowater, Kruger and SFK Pulp, whose
destructive logging practices are responsible for decimating nearly
200,000 square kilometers of the North American Boreal Forest, roughly
the size of Nebraska.“Today, we are naming names,” said Rolf Skar,
forest campaigner with Greenpeace. “The logging companies and customers
featured in this report are driving the destruction of Canada’s Boreal
Forest, our best line of defense against global warming and one of our
last remaining ancient forests.”

The Greenpeace investigative
report, “Consuming Canada’s Boreal Forest: The chain of destruction
from logging companies to consumers,” calls for consumers to protect
one of the largest ancient forests left on Earth. It also condemns the
governments of Canadian provinces Ontario and Quebec, where less than
nine and five percent of the forest respectively is protected from
industrial development.“We expect customers of these logging companies
to temporarily suspend their multi-million dollar contracts until the
ancient forests can be protected and destructive logging in the Boreal
ends,” added Skar. “We are looking to the marketplace to transform this
situation.”

In addition to environmental destruction—including
forest fragmentation, climate impacts and loss of wildlife habitat and
ecosystem biodiversity—the report also highlights
Abitibi-Consolidated’s refusal to end operations in the traditional
territory of Grassy Narrows First Nation, despite a longstanding
blockade against logging in the native community there.Canada’s Boreal
Forest stretches across northern Canada, from Newfoundland to the
Yukon. It represents a quarter of the world’s remaining intact ancient
forests and stores 47.5 billion tons of carbon in its soils and trees.
Less than 14 percent of the Boreal forest in Quebec and 18 percent in
Ontario remains intact. More than 68 per cent of the area managed by
the three logging companies named in the report has already been
degraded or destroyed.

[Author]

August 21, 2007 at 10:53 AM