Activists target RI's illegal timber trade<\/p>\n
Jamie Wilson, Guardian News Service, London<\/p>\n
Waiting for the first shards of light to break through the night
\nsky, the two inflatable speedboats were running without
\nnavigation lights. The lead boat flashed a torch twice, and the
\ntwo ribs powered up and began cutting through the swell of the
\nEnglish Channel.<\/p>\n
Their target, a 20,000-tonne cargo ship suspected of carrying
\nillegally felled timber from the endangered rainforests of
\nIndonesia, was lit up like a Christmas tree on the horizon.<\/p>\n
Six Greenpeace activists, dressed in orange survival suits
\nwith "Forest Crime Unit" emblazoned on the back, would use caving
\nhook ladders to climb the side of the ship, board and then occupy
\nthe vessel in an attempt to stop it from unloading its cargo at
\nTilbury docks on the Thames.<\/p>\n
Greenpeace had been tracking the MV Greveno for months, since
\nthe campaign ship Rainbow Warrior watched it load a Europe-bound
\ncargo of plywood from a sawmill known to have used timber from a
\nsupposedly protected orang utan refuge in Tanjung Puting national
\npark.<\/p>\n
The ship is also carrying timber from an area where illegal
\nlogging is threatening the survival of the Sumatran tiger.<\/p>\n
According to Greenpeace, behind much of the plywood that
\noriginates in Indonesia's rainforests there is a web of criminal
\nactivity, corruption and bloodshed, and the arrival of the
\nGreveno, which has already unloaded some of its cargo in France,
\nis symptomatic of the way EU governments are not doing enough to
\nstop the illicit trade.<\/p>\n
Home to the longest list of endangered species in the world,
\nIndonesia's rainforest is disappearing faster than any other. An
\narea the size of Belgium is destroyed every year and experts
\npredict that by 2010 most of the lowland rainforest will be gone
\nfrom Borneo and Sumatra.<\/p>\n
Activists on board the Rainbow Warrior watched the Greveno
\nloading plywood from the Ariabami Sari sawmill. Last year an
\nIndonesian government investigation found that the owner of the
\nsawmill, Korindo, was buying logs from timber dealers who have
\nbeen felling trees in the orang utan refuge.<\/p>\n
The endangered ape is found only in Sumatra and Borneo and
\ntheir numbers have halved in 10 years.<\/p>\n
Despite the investigation, the mill was not shut down, and the
\ncompany has refused to take part in a British trade initiative to
\nassess the legality of Indonesian timber operations.<\/p>\n
The ship is also known to be carrying timber supplied by a
\ncompany that operates in Sumatra, buying timber in an area
\nrenowned for illegal logging which is threatening the survival of
\nthe island's tiger.<\/p>\n
Last Wednesday was just the latest skirmish between the cargo
\nvessel and the Greenpeace campaigners. As the Greenpeace protest
\nbegan, the two boats approached the MV Greveno, coming from the
\nstern at high speed and drawing alongside the lowest point of the
\ndeck three metres above their heads.<\/p>\n
Using an unwieldy telescopic pole, the boarding party
\nstruggled to hook the tiny wire caving ladder on to the rail of
\nthe ship as their boat pitched and yawed in the Atlantic swell.
\nThe crew of the Greveno were ready for them.<\/p>\n
The first boarding attempt had come on Tuesday morning when
\nthe same six activists had set out from the Greenpeace ship the
\nEsperanza and approached the then unsuspecting Greveno.<\/p>\n
For a moment as they drew alongside they thought they had
\nmanaged to attach the wire ladder, but the hook came loose and
\ndropped into the sea. The boarding party struggled to reattach
\nit, but had lost the element of surprise.<\/p>\n
They were now in for their own unpleasant shock. Pictures
\ntaken by the Rainbow Warrior in Indonesia suggested the crew were
\nmostly Filipinos, who in the past have usually reacted mildly
\nwhen Greenpeace activists have attempted to board ships.<\/p>\n
But the smiling faces in the photographs bore no resemblance
\nto the thick-set sailors of eastern European appearance who were
\nnow on deck. They were not compliant.<\/p>\n
The captain had sounded the alarm and by the time the boarding
\nteam tried to attach the ladder several crew were on hand to kick
\nit away. The crew also had high-powered deck hoses.<\/p>\n
Eventually the speedboats were forced to retreat. The pattern
\nwas repeated as the hook was kicked away and the hoses uncoiled.
\nBut the campaigners vowed to continue harassing the ship, and
\nlast night they were planning further action in the mouth of the
\nThames where the Greveno was due early.<\/p>\n
"We're certainly not giving up,' said Greenpeace's forest
\ncampaigner, Andy Tait. "We're going to do everything we can to
\ndisrupt the unloading of this ship."<\/p>\n
The UK Timber Trade Federation has admitted that not one of
\nIndonesia's sawmills can provide sufficient evidence of legality
\nor sustainability for the British market, and three of the main
\nhigh street builders merchants, including Jewson and Travis
\nPerkins, have stopped buying Indonesian plywood because of
\nconcerns about illegal trade.<\/p>\n
But while many European governments have spoken out about the
\nillegal trade in timber there are few laws to stop it from being
\nimported.<\/p>\n
Greenpeace is calling on the British and other EU governments
\nto introduce legislation to make it a crime to import and market
\nillegally logged timber and wood products. In the meantime the
\norganization has vowed to continue to harass ships it believes
\nare carrying illegally felled timber.<\/p>",
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