GREENPEACE CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE STOP OF TROPICAL TIMBER IMPORTS
FROM SARAWAK,
Rome, 24 December 1991
GREENPEACE Italy has launched an initiative today to ask the
Italian government to immediately stop imports of tropical timber
from Sarawak, whose environmental and social balance is
seriously threatened by commercial logging activities.
Every year national and international logging companies, mostly
Japanese, but also Italian, are in a way or in another
responsible for the destruction of at least 2700 sqKms oftropical
forest. The direct and indirect effects of logging activities,
such as the opening of logging roads and the removal of logs have
upset the productive and economic patters of indigenous
communities, causing - among others - floods, siltation of
rivers and lakes and a reduction of plant and animal
populations that represent an important source of nourishment for
native groups.
At current deforestation rates, primary forests will probably
disappear in the next 7-8 years, thus seriously threatening the
only source of revenue for the state. The pressure of commercial
interests of local political and economic elites is endangering
the survival of indigenous groups such as the Penans,
Iban,Kelabit that have been calling for the respect of their
rights peacefully and in a nonviolent way for many years now,
facing the destruction of that forest in which they have been
living for centuries. But logging goes on more than before: in
1990 total production of logs stepped up from 12 to 18 million
cubic meters. In 1990 Italy imprted at least 64,000 cubic meters
of sawntimber while in the period January-April 1991 imports have
totaled 26,678 cubic meters, accounting for a 43,2% increase vis
a vis the same period of last year. "In the meantime - stated
Francesco Martone of Greenpeace - the European Parliament has
passed three resolutions , the last of which in September 1991,
in which it expresses its solidarity with indigenous populations
and calls upon the Commission and the Member States to
immediately suspend imports of tropical timber from Sarawak
until it is ackowledged that the same is extracted without
prejudice for the environment and the indigenous populations."
" Now we urge the Italian government to follow the example of the
EP by implementing an immediate moratorium on imports of tropical
timber from Sarawak and taking all the initiatives possible at
all levels in order to guarantee the respect of the rights of
indigenous peoples and the survival of the forests of this
state."