Greenpeace Latin American Forests Campaign coordinator
Jose Augusto Padua, just informed that the central association of
timber exporters in the Amazon (AIMEX) sent a letter on Jan 5 to
the UK Timber Trade Federation stating that they will not explore <--
or buy timber coming from Indian reserves. They also claim that <--
they'll "investigate" the "denounciations" against the members
that are logging in Indian lands and if a sawmill keeps on acting
illegally, it will be expelled from the association. The
declaration was signed by 23 sawmills, including almost all
mahogany exporters. The declaration was decided in a meeting held
in Belem on Dec 28.
Greenpeace believes this declaration is highly hypocritical, as
it is already perfectly known that Indian lands are the basic
source of mahogany, and no further "investigation" is needed to
ascertain it. However, the declaration is an important step as it
is the first time that the timber exporters publicly acknowledge
that logging effectively takes place in Indian lands.
Greenpeace Brazil will keep the pressure because they do
notb believe the tmber exporters really want to fulfil their
commitment and because the stop of logging in Indianlandsis just
one of the campaign demands.
for more information: Jose Augusto Padua - Greenpeace Brazil
E-mail: ax!padua tel: 0055.21.2627318 fax:0055.21.2401690
Francesco Martone
Greenpeace International Forests Campaign
[ The email address to use via Internet is "padua@ax.apc.org" --Gary ]