Gorilla from Africa, under threat from illegal logging

Greenpeace are urging UK timber importers to boycott the Swiss-German Danzer Group. The call follows investigations which found that Danzer are involved in bribery, corruption, illegal logging, suspected forgery of official documents and carrying out business dealings with an arms trafficker, blacklisted by the UN Security Council (UNSC).

Danzer is one of the world's largest international traders in tropical roundwood, sliced wood and veneers and one of the largest suppliers of tropical timber to the UK market. The company sources timber predominantly from West and Central Africa and has timber concessions covering more than four million hectares of rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the neighbouring Republic of Congo alone.

A report detailing the results of Greenpeace's investigations into Danzer's global operations has been mailed to all major UK companies involved in importing timber from the company, and end users who may be using African hardwood products. These include International Timber (part of the Saint-Gobain group), Smee Timber and James Latham. It exposes how the company is involved in:

(1) Bribery and corruption: Internal documents reveal how Danzer's African operations regularly engage in bribery. The Swiss Attorney-General is currently investigating whether the company should be prosecuted under new international anti-corruption laws which make it a crime to 'offer, promise or give a bribe to a foreign public official in order to obtain to retain international business deals'.

(2) Financing illegal logging in Cameroon, through its financial and trade links with logging company Mba Mba Georges, which has been documented as being involved in extensive illegal logging in Cameroon.

(3) Trading with known arms traffickers: Details how Interholco, a Swiss based subsidiary of Danzer, has historically and is still today buying logs trafficked by a known arms and diamond trafficker Gus Kouwenhouven. Dutch born Kouwenhouven was a key figure in the trade in illegal arms to Liberia during the reign of the warlord Charles Taylor. He is subject to a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) travel ban and the UNSC have also called for his assets to be frozen to prohibit him from 'using misappropriated funds and property to interfere in the restoration of peace and stability in Liberia'.

(4) Fraud: Danzer's Liberian partner company, the Inland Logging Company (now dormant), has recently been accused of tax fraud by the Liberian authorities.

(5) Suspected forgery of official documents: Danzer Group employees are suspected to have forged certification of origin and other documents for timber exports from a number of African countries.

Greenpeace Senior Forest Campaigner, Pat Venditti said: "Almost without exception, companies like the Danzer Group have knowingly chosen to continue laundering timber from illegal and destructive sources, often from countries governed by corrupt regimes where rogue logging companies operate unhindered."

"Purchasing timber products from Danzer is like buying the chainsaws that are tearing apart Africa's last remaining rainforests," continued Mr Venditti. "Given the illegal and suspect activities exposed in this report, it is clear the EU must act to ban further imports of illegally logged timber, and companies must begin to avoid timber from companies like Danzer engaged in illegal or suspect activities."

The rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Cameroon and Gabon are the last refuge for threatened species such as the lowland gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants. However, it is estimated that only one third of the original African forests remain and experts consider that three-quarters of what remains is under threat, mostly by the logging industry.

Further information
Read a full copy of the report.

For more information contact Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.

The cover of the forthcoming Greenpeace 'How to Specify Good Wood' CD-ROM

Renowned architectural commentator & TV presenter Kevin McCloud backs Greenpeace Guide

On Monday (29th November) Greenpeace will launch a unique multimedia CD-ROM, 'How to Specify Good Wood.' Aimed at UK architects, specifiers and contractors the RIBA approved CD-ROM provides a step by step guide to ensuring that wood used on construction projects comes from legal and sustainable sources. It will be distributed to 30,000 architectural practices, construction companies and local authorities around the UK.

Ancient forests have evolved over thousands of years and are home to tens of thousands of plant and animal species. Today they are at crisis point, with a staggering 80 percent of the world's original ancient forests having been destroyed or degraded. An additional area the size of a football pitch is disappearing every two seconds.

Illegal and unsustainable logging by multinational logging companies is a major cause of ancient forest loss. In many countries illegal logging is of similar size to, or exceeds, legal production. In Indonesia, for example, nearly 90% of logging is estimated to be illegal, with the wood procured by timber barons notorious for environmental destruction, corruption and human rights abuses. By contrast, responsible forestry provides an income and future for local communities as well as tax revenue for national governments.

On Monday (29th November) Greenpeace will launch a unique multimedia CD-ROM, 'How to Specify Good Wood.' Aimed at UK architects, specifiers and contractors the RIBA approved CD-ROM provides a step by step guide to ensuring that wood used on construction projects comes from legal and sustainable sources. It will be distributed to 30,000 architectural practices, construction companies and local authorities around the UK. Ancient forests have evolved over thousands of years and are home to tens of thousands of plant and animal species. Today they are at crisis point, with a staggering 80% of the world's original ancient forests having been destroyed or degraded. An additional area the size of a football pitch is disappearing every two seconds.

The UK is a major importer within the EU of illegal wood from tropical forests. The construction sector uses up to 70 percent of all the timber consumed in the UK and regularly uses timber sourced from ancient forest areas. These include Meranti from Indonesian rainforests, which is used for interior construction and panelling, Sapele from African rainforests, which is often used to make doors and window frames and Indonesian rainforest plywood, which is regularly used for building site hoardings and formwork then thrown away.

Greenpeace forests campaigner Nathan Argent explained, "Contractors, architects and specifiers have a key role to play in ensuring that the timber used on building projects comes from legal and sustainable sources. This CD provides them with the tools to ensure they get the right timber for the project without fuelling the destruction of the world's last remaining ancient forests."

Kevin McCloud, renowned architecture commentator and presenter of the Bafta nominated TV programme 'Grand Designs,' stated in his support of the newly launched Greenpeace CD: "Trees are the lungs of this planet, our allies in the fight against carbon overloading. They are also living giants, vast natural edifices which we can admire for their longevity, poise, scale and beauty. Who doesn't recoil at the terrifying fact that simply vast areas of forest are being removed from the planet every year?"

Forest crime files

Publication date: June 2002

Summary
The redevelopment of the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace has just been completed. The Gallery, part of a £20 million Jubilee project, was designed by architects John Simpson & Partners and is the most significant addition to Buckingham Palace in 150 years. Incredibly, completely uncertified tropical timber has been used in the building. The use of such timber is fuelling the destruction of ancient forests in the Brazilian Amazon and in Central and West Africa.

Prince Phillip, the President Emeritus of World Wide Fund for Nature has called for commercial forestry operations to be certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). This has been completely ignored in the Queens Gallery, despite contractual obligations that all tropical timber used in the building should be certified. In at least one case the supplier has been unable even to identify from which country tropical timber was sourced. The Queen's Gallery has been renovated to mark the jubilee celebrations. Meanwhile, scientists warn that chimpanzees and gorillas, dependent on the forests of Central and West Africa, will disappear from the wild in the next 50 years if current rates of forest destruction continue.

Publication date: April 2002

Summary
Illegal and destructive logging is now the single largest threat to what's remains of the world's ancient forests. It is estimated that the UK is the largest importer of illegal tropical timber in Europe, with some 60% of all tropical timber coming into the UK being sourced from companies involved in illegal logging. By turning a blind eye to the origins of the wood coming into its ports, the UK Government is allowing this unscrupulous industry to profit from the international trade in this criminal activity. This complacency threatens to drive endangered species, such as the great apes, to extinction in the wild in our lifetimes.