*NEWS*DESTRUCTION OF 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 10:51 AM