Greenpeace calls for timber action

Activists from Greenpeace formed a blockade at London’s Tilbury docks this week, to prevent the unloading of a massive cargo of timber that the group says has been sourced illegally from Indonesia’s protected rainforest region. The MV Greveno, which was carrying the contentious shipment, was eventually allowed to dock, prompting the environmental group to call for the government to seize the cargo before it is distributed into the European market.

Greenpeace had been tracking the ship and its cargo since early February. The timber onboard comes from an organisation known to deal with sources that engage in illegal clear-cutting in the highly sensitive Tanjung Puting National Park. Indonesia’s timber market is notoriously ambiguous with regard to illegal sourcing, and several of the UK’s leading builder’s merchants refuse to deal with timber from the territory.

Greenpeace’s John Sauven commented; “The logging, export and sale of this timber is nothing short of organised crime. Behind each sheet of plywood that originates in Indonesia's rainforests there is a web of criminal activity, corruption and bloodshed. Governments worldwide must reject this criminal timber and shut down the market for illegal timber before the Indonesian rainforest is gone and orang-utans are only found in zoos.”

Despite protective regulations and the fact that the region has the highest number of endangered species in the world, it is estimated that the Indonesian rainforest is disappearing by an area roughly the size of Belgium every year.