“WICKES knows the atrocities that Interfor commits in the
ancient temperate rainforest in British Columbia, Canada and yet
they still carry Interfor’s products,” said Mike Roselle, Forests
Campaigner for Greenpeace. “Today’s protest is part of a national
grass roots uprising. Concerned citizens are doing everything in
their power to expose both Interfor’s highly destructive practices
and the stores that refuse to stop selling their products.”
Interfor’s disregard for the environment is well known and
documented. From 1995 to 1997, Interfor and its subsidiaries have
been charged and penalized 136 times for violating British Columbia
legislation, including several infractions of the Forest Practices
Code.
“Companies who do business with Interfor need to answer to their
customers for their own role in destroying our global treasures,”
said Rob Fish, a student demonstrator. “Customers have the right to
know if the products they buy are fueling the destruction of our
planet’s last ancient forests.” According to the World Resources
Institute, temperate rainforests are the most endangered forest
type on Earth.
Greenpeace is calling for a logging moratorium on all intact
valleys and key ecological areas within the Great Bear Rainforest
until the completion and adoption of a meaningful conservation and
ecosystem-based management plan for the coastal rainforest. If
logging is determined to be appropriate, Greenpeace maintains that
forest products must come from well-managed forests that have been
certified to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards or better.
Many retailers, including home furnishing giant IKEA, have already
pledged to use only forest products that have been FSC-
certified.
Although many forestry companies operating in the Great Bear
Rainforest are working with environmental organizations in British
Columbia to protect highly contentious areas within the rainforest,
Interfor walked away from negotiations and has resumed its logging
plans. Since then, environmentalists have exposed the company’s
plans to log 18 pristine valleys and critically important areas of
the Great Bear Rainforest in the next five years.
