Greenpeace activists from across Europe launched a dawn protest this morning at the Botnia pulp mill and the Stora Enso paper mill in the northern Finnish town of Kemi. Unfurling a banner reading "Stop ancient Forest Destruction", forty protestors blocked the main entrances to both mills, preventing deliveries of timber taken from Europe's last ancient forests in northern Lapland.

The world's largest paper company, Stora Enso, and one of Europe's largest pulp producers, Botnia, were today accused of destroying huge tracts of Europe's last remaining ancient forests in Finnish Lapland to make paper for well-known magazines in Europe.

Greenpeace research has shown that Stora Enso uses timber from ancient forest destruction to make magazine paper for nearly all of the leading European publishing houses and supplies almost all leading envelope producers.

"Unless magazine publishers in the UK like IPC and EMP want to be associated with the destruction of thousand year old forests, they should be putting pressure on their suppliers to ensure that they are not sourcing fibre from this area of Finland," said Greenpeace campaigner Ben Ayliffe.

The Finnish government are also linked to this scandal, as the state-owned logging company Metsähallitus recently logged in a number of areas of ancient forests in northern Lapland to supply pulp to the mills at Kemi. The Finnish government also owns around a 25 per cent stake in Stora Enso. Recently, 250 Finnish scientists appealed for a halt to the logging in ancient forests in northern Finland because of the damage it was causing.

"The best way to guarantee your paper is not coming from Europe's last remaining ancient forests is to maximise recycled content and only use virgin fibre that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council," added Ayliffe.

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For more information contact the Greenpeace press office on 0207 865 8255