July 5, 2004
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Glen Barry, Ph.D., Forests.org
Below you will find a remarkable statement of support for the World's endangered forests from ForestEthics. They are asking that your group endorse the statement in order to demonstrate to companies that there is broad support for the protection of endangered forests. For some time I had hoped to develop a similar "forest conservation manifesto" that details an end-game for halting the loss and beginning the restoration of the world's mature natural forests. Global ecological sustainability of both species and ecosystems is utterly dependent upon forests. I encourage forest conservationists to reject incremental reform which saves a bit here and there at the expense of legitimizing continued forest loss and diminishment. The world's remaining ancient old-growth and primary forests must ALL be protected. Anything less fails to address systematic ecocide of humanity's habitat. Let us commit to protection of all remaining endangered forests - and the shifts in consumer behavior, finance and economics, and politics and society required to make this happen. Please join ForestEthics in urging corporations to make commitments to stop using, selling, and buying products that contain Endangered Forests. I am very interested in developing and implementing strategies to make this a reality - input and discussion on the topic is welcome at
http://forests.org/web/
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Sign-on to for the protection of endangered forests
Source: Liz Butler, ForestEthics
Date: June 29, 2004
To sign on to the statement of support below, please send me the organization name, a contact person, a street address, a phone number and an email address. Send the info to liz@forestethics.org.
To: Organizations concerned about endangered forests
From: Liz Butler, ForestEthics
Re: Sign-on to for the protection of endangered forests
We need your organization's help to save critical endangered forests. I am writing to ask your organization to sign-on to an international statement of support for the protection of endangered forests.
Right now, endangered forests from around the globe are ending up on store shelves. They are coming from the forests of the US, the Canadian Boreal, Chile, Indonesia, and many other countries around the globe.
There are many organizations involved and working very hard to protect these forests. A majority of these groups are working at the local, regional and national level to change legislative and administrative policies that affect these endangered forests.
A set of organizations including ForestEthics have been focused on getting companies to make commitments to stop buying & selling endangered forests. This has been very successful over the last five years. Companies such as Staples, Home Depot, Kinko's, Ryland homes, and many others have agreed to stop the destruction of endangered forests.
We have been able to leverage these commitments to help save endangered forests. In a number of cases these companies have used their influence with the logging companies and governments to work towards stopping the destruction of endangered forests in British Columbia, Chile, and the US.
We need your help to continue to show companies that there is broad support for the protection of endangered forests and that organizations are paying attention to corporate actions on endangered forests. The statement of support for the protection of Endangered Forests will help them see that many organizations think that it is important for companies to make a commitment to protect endangered forests.
I hope that you will sign on your organization on to the statement of support for the protection Endangered Forests.
To sign on to the statement of support, please send me the organization name, a contact person, a street address, a phone number and an email address. Send the info to liz@forestethics.org.
I would also like ideas of other groups to contact about the statement. If you have thoughts about local, state, regional, national, or international groups that you think would sign on to the statement of support please send me the name of the group, a contact, and how to get in touch with them.
If you have questions or want more information let me know.
Liz Butler ForestEthics 301-864-3244 or liz@forestethics.org
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Statement of Support for the Protection of Endangered Forests
We, the undersigned organizations, representing people of conscience globally, are deeply concerned about the destruction of Endangered Forests around the globe.
Endangered Forests are the most valuable forests remaining on the Earth today. They are humanity's last chance to protect large original and old growth forests, and the planet's rapidly-disappearing biodiversity.
Endangered Forests include:
. intact forest landscapes (also known as Frontier Forests),
. restoration and remnant forest types,
. areas with exceptional biodiversity values (e.g., rare forest types, forests exhibiting high endemism or species richness), and;
. core habitat of focal conservation species.
Endangered forests in need of protection are found around the world. They include the endangered forests of US public lands, the Southern US Cumberland Plateau, the Canadian Boreal, the Amazon rainforests, British Columbia Inland rainforest, Chile's siempre verde forests, Indonesia, and others.
Endangered Forests are so rare, threatened or ecologically vulnerable, and are of such global biological importance that industrial resource extraction in Endangered Forests causes them irreparable harm.
We are alarmed that the world's Endangered Forests are being destroyed to make lumber, catalogs, office paper, packaging, windows, doors and many other products. These products, made by global corporations, end up on store shelves and in the mailboxes of people in the US and around the globe.
These corporations have customers that care about endangered forests. These customers must be educated about the products made from endangered forests, and encouraged to take actions that cause these companies to change the way they do business.
We call for the protection of Endangered Forests. We urge corporations to make commitments to stop using, selling, and buying products that contain Endangered Forests. We expect these products to be replaced with alternatives such as post consumer recycled paper and third party independently certified wood.
Humanity must act urgently to ensure that the global treasure of our Endangered Forests will be here for future generations of people and all creation.
Organization ____________________________________
Contact ____________________________
Title __________________________
Phone____________________________
email ____________________________
Address_____________________________________
City _____________________
State ________
zip _______________
website ______________________________
Liz Butler
Organizing Director/ForestEthics
301-864-3244p/202-487-4908c
liz@forestethics.org/
4208 32nd street
Mount Rainier, MD 20712
http://www.forestethics.org
