This is an update on the IPS-Report from September 94. The German timber
merchant Hinrich Stoll has sued the Hamburg based organisation "Rettet den
Regenwald".
For more information contact:
Rettet den Regenwald
Tel: 49 40 4103804
Fax: 49 40 4500144
email: regenwald@umwelt.ecolink.org
Latest development, June 1995:
The second hearing took place on 26 May at the court in Hamburg. Stoll
presented various documents from officials of Congo, in order to prove that
his activities in 1989 were "legal". However, as Rettet den Regenwald
learned from talks to several members of the German GTZ, "corruption is
common in the whole congolese administration", and "controll on the
concessions is practically impossible".
Stoll also handeled a Study over to the court, prepared by SGS Forestry for
the IFC. Although this study expresses some questionable arguments in favour
of CIB, it states that the two timber species used at present (Sipo,
Sapelli), will be driven to extinction.
Surprising: IUCN is now prepairing another study on the CIB concession. The
study is financed by the German Government and aims "to investigate the role
of CIB in achieving sustainable forest management,..." This study is
obvously the result of the problems the German government ran into after the
above mentioned reports by Schmincke and Lumet slipped into the hands of
NGOs and the press. This leads to the conclusion, that the German government
tries to compensate Stoll for the bad reputation caused by the publication
of the reports. This is all the more alarming, as Stoll and other German
concession holders in Africa wish to apply for certification by the FSC.
This is stated in the latest press release by the "Initiative Tropenwald".
Rettet den Regenwald claims to continue calling Stoll an "environmental
criminal", because he plays an important role in the destruction of tropical
Rainforest while presenting himself as a "saver of forests". The verdict
will be spoken on June 23 in Hamburg.
Hamburg, 2 June 1995