For Immediate Release Contact: Patricia Awerbach (215) 473-5131
Pam Wellner (415) 512-9025
Rainforest Activists Seize Ilegal Brazilian Wood Imports
Charge: "Mahogany Is Murder"
PHILADELPHIA, (August 8, 1994) Rainforest activists have shut down the front
gate of Thompson Mahogany Company, seizing mahogany shipments believed to be
illegally logged on Amazon Indian lands in Brazil. Two activists have
chained themselves to the front gate of Thompson's lumber yard, while
several others climbed to the top of 12-ft. high stack of "stolen" mahogany
unfurling a banner with the message, "Mahogany is Murder."
"We're not just talking metaphorically," said Randy Hayes, executive
director of Rainforest Action Network. "Rainforest destruction imperils the
whole planet, but today we're telling the world that mahogany cutters are
actually murdering people who dare stand in their way. This is quite simply
murder for profit."
Brazilian newspapers have reported dozens of killings of logging opponents
from eight Indian tribes since 1988.
More than 75 activists from rainforest action groups from around the country
are demonstrating in front of the lumber yard at 7400 Edmund Street in
Northeast Philadelphia. Thompson Mahogany is one of the top ten importers
of the wood to North America.
Most mahogany exported from Brazil and Bolivia originates illegally in
indigenous people's lands and protected conservation areas. Brazil's Roman
Catholic bishops estimate 95% of the logging in Amazonia is illegal.
Over the last year, Brazilian Courts have fined several companies caught
logging illegally and enjoined further outlaw timber operations.
By searching export statistics, Rainforest Action Network determined that
Thompson has received mahogany shipments from at least two companies found
guilty by Brazilian Courts.
Perachi, a Thompson supplier, was found guilty on April 5 of illegal logging
inside the Xikrim Catete Indigenous Area of the Brazilian state of Para.
Last year, Brazil's environmental agency revoked the export license of
another Thompson supplier, C&C, which was caught with mahogany illegally
obtained from indigenous reserves. C&C has since regained its license and
resumed exporting.
A top director of another Thompson supplier "SEMASA, Ltd." is financially
tied to Impar, a company found guilty of illegal logging in December, 1993.
Rainforest activists observed wood labelled "SEMASA," "Brazil," and
"Bolivia" in the Thompson yard in late July.
SEMASA points to its mahogany-planting program, but an international team of
scientists reported in 1992 that "virtually all mahogany traded on
international markets comes from trees extracted from primary forests." A
1983 report said efforts to grow or harvest the wood sustainably have
conistently failed.
Perachi, C&C, and SEMASA are all part of the interlocking 12-company logging
Brazil cartel controlled by seven investors.
Thompson Mahogany president Don Thompson is a leader of and often represents
the International Hardwood Products Association, a trade group.
Activists base today's seizure on the common-law doctrine of recovering
stolen property. "We can't undo the murders,"said Rainforest Action
Network's Hayes, "but we are seizing the mahogany to let people know their
mahogany furniture is made from stolen goods and comes at the cost of human
lives and forest ecosystem.
Despite the court decisions in Brazil, consumer demand for mahogany drives
outlaw profiteers to carve thousands of miles of logging roads, destroy
forests, and illegally intrude on the lands of indigenous peoples. U.S.
markets consume more than half of all Latin American mahogany output.
Eighty indigenous and environmental groups in Brazil have called for a
moratorium on mahogany logging in order to assess the damage to the species,
the forest ecosystem and indigenous peoples land. Rampant exploitation of
mahogany timber is also destroying Bolivian and Central American
rainforests.
In support of the Brazilian groups, Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network,
and other environmental organizations want consumers to stop buying mahogany
products. The groups are also asking the Clinton administration to back a
proposal to regulate the international mahogany trade.
Specifically, they want mahogany to be listed under Appendix II of the
Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Appendix II is not a ban, but helps mahogany-producing countries to regulate
the trade and protect the long-term survival of the several mahogany
species.
"Brazilian environmental and Indian affair agencies are ill-equipped to
enforce regulations that would end the over-exploitation of mahogany and
the invasion of indigenous lands," said Pamela Wellner, tropical forest
campaigner for Greenpeace. "CITES would give mahogany-exporting
countries international assistance in harnessing this bandit trade."
"We want mahogany importers to stop their collusion with illegal loggers,"
said Atossa Soltani, tropical timber conservation campaigner for Rainforest
Action Network. "Protecting mahogany will also help preserve the rest of the
dwindling rainforest, leave a home for the forest peoples, and give Earth a
chance,"
Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendel declared August 6 Rainforest Conservation Day.
His official proclamation pledged to reduce the city's use of tropical
hardwoods.
The New Jersey legislature is considering a selective-purchasing bill. That
legislation would prohibit the use of tropical hardwoods by the state
government unless the timber is sustainably harvested. Tim Keating,
director of Rainforest Relief in New Jersey, said "The only thing keeping
the bill from passing has been stiff lobbying by Don Thompson and the
International Hardwood Products Association."
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