Der indonesische Konzern APRIL hat für seine Zellstoffproduktion bereits mindestens 300.000 Hektar Regenwald vernichtet und dabei viele Menschen von ihrem angestammten Land vertrieben. Jetzt hat APRIL eine neue Abholz-Konzession in den letzten tropischen Torfwäldern Sumatras beantragt.

Bitte fordern sie noch heute vom zuständigen Provinzgouverneur und anderen verantwortlichen Politikern, die Konzession nicht zu genehmigen.

Einen entsprechenden Brief in englisch und die deutsche Übersetzung finden Sie unter http://www.regenwald.org

Bitte leiten Sie diese Nachricht an möglichst viele Freunde und Bekannte weiter!

Vielen Dank für Ihre Unterstützung. Beste Grüße, ein friedliches Weihnachtsfest und ein erfolgreiches neues Jahr.

Ihr Reinhard Behrend
Vorsitzender
Rettet den Regenwald e. V.

Wanna help us kick Weyerhaeuser out of old growth? We're hiring an old growth organizer to come on board at RAN to change the way business is done in the logging industry. The old growth organizer position will strengthen, broaden, and diversify the network of grassroots indigenous rights, rainforest conservation, and climate change activists and groups.

Prioritizing tasks, volunteer coordination, the ability to engage with corporate and municipal wood and paper buyers, and the ability to empower and motivate grassroots activists in carrying out campaign tactics are necessary. The position requires good decision-making skills, professional initiative and results-oriented behavior. Previous successful campaign experience is required; nonviolent direct action experience is an asset. Check out our job postings for information on how to apply to join the RAN team.

Wild Oats - your work is making a difference

With the end of the year fast approaching, and Wild Oats still not committing to drop Weyerhaeuser, your time and energy this month is so crucial. We want to hit 20 actions this month - so if you haven't already taken action, you could...

Submit a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Drop a formal letter off to the manger of the store and request a meeting to talk about the issue. Postcard and pass out materials to shoppers in front of the store. There is a lot you can do.

See what's been going on so far in December:

In Boulder, where Wild Oats is headquartered, the local radio station covered the protest by the Boulder Rainforest Action Group. The manager of the store shared apples with our supporters, and a musician from the jam band "String Cheese Incident" actually posed for pictures with our supporters after signing a postcard...

From California to Massachusetts, activists sent over 1000 emails and gathered over 500 postcards addressed to the CEO of Wild Oats, and organized half a dozen meetings with local Wild Oats managers.

Sign up to do an action at http://action.ran.org/ctt.asp?u=2844473&l=72618

Retired? Taking a break?

If you have business or law experience, you might be the perfect person to help us speak directly to Weyerhaeuser's customers. If you're good on the telephone, understand the campaign, and are excited about the opportunity to communicate directly with corporate decision makers, then please call Jess and Sharon at 415-398-4404.

Green Corps - more training

If you still need some more training and experience before applying to run a national grassroots campaign, you can check out Green Corps. Can you imagine yourself running a campaign to defend old growth forests from corporate logging companies, protecting local communities from pesticides, or starting your own environmental group? Green Corps' one-year, full-time, paid Environmental Leadership Training Program gives you the best training available to launch an organizing and advocacy career. Find out more and apply online this month at http://www.greencorps.org.

We can do this! For the forests,

Jess, Sharon, and Brant
RAN's Old Growth Team

The U.S. Imperialist Role in the Destruction of the Sierra Madre Mountains
http://www.bulatlat.com/news/4-46/4-46-mountains.html


Informant: andrew robinson

PRESS RELEASE

THE RAINFOREST FOUNDATION

Tuesday 14th December 2004: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

British MP condemns World Bank-backed plans for rainforest logging
in the Congo

Member of Parliament Bob Blizzard (Waveney) yesterday said in a Westminster Hall debate that "there was no chance at all" that a World Bank-backed plan to 'develop' the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which are the second largest on Earth, would bring any benefits to impoverished local people. Instead, the planned expansion of the timber industry would, the MP said, damage the livelihoods of some of the poorest people on Earth, including those of local 'Pygmies'.

The Parliamentary debate followed a visit to Congo's rainforests by members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Great Lakes and Genocide Prevention. The Group also yesterday announced the publication of a new report, "To elections and beyond" , which details the MPs' visit to DRC and sets out their recommendations on the future of the country's vast rainforests [2]. The report calls for the continuation of a moratorium on the issuing of any new logging concessions in DRC's forests.

Oona King, Founder and Chair of the APPG, said "We learned that nine contracts have been awarded to private logging companies by the Environment Ministry since the moratorium. They should simply be annulled and the moratorium maintained" [3]. Oona King called for sound management of DRC's natural resources which, she said, "was a prerequisite to enduring peace and prosperity in the country".

Responding to the debate, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Chris Mullin, said that he would draw the attention of the World Bank to the concerns raised by the Members of Parliament.

Simon Counsell, Director of the Rainforest Foundation UK, said: "We welcome the UK Government's commitment to raising concerns with the World Bank about the future of Congo's rainforests. As a major shareholder in the Bank, the Government has a responsibility to ensure that UK taxpayers' money will not be spent on destroying Congo's rainforests and wrecking local peoples' livelihoods."

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Simon Counsell, Rainforest Foundation UK

Tel: +44 (020) 7251 6345

Email: simonc@rainforestuk.com

More information about Congo's rainforests and the work of the Rainforest Foundation can be found at: http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.com

Notes to Editors

[1] MPs Bob Blizzard and Oona King visited the Democratic Republic of Congo in October, hosted by the Rainforest Foundation. The All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region & Genocide Prevention (APPG) comprises 148 MPs and Peers from the UK Parliament. It was founded by its current Chair. Oona King MP. Today, it is the leading forum in the UK Parliament for discussion and critical analysis of issues affecting the Great Lakes Region: Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Northern Uganda.

[2] The report is available from the website of the All-Party Parliamentary Group, at: http://www.appggreatlakes.org

The report also recommends that the World Bank, in conjunction with the Ministry of environment and local civil society organisation, send monitors into the forest to ensure that local people are consulted and acknowledged as residents. It also calls for international donors, the UK Government's Department for International Development (DfID) especially, to fund a comprehensive study in order to provide an estimation of the value of the forest, based not only on the commercial worth of its timber, but also on the value of forest products such as animal products, vegetable foods, building materials, medicinal plants and fuelwood, as well as ecological functions and services such as watershed maintenance and biodiversity protection.

[3] At the November "Forum on Forests and Nature Conservation" organised by the Congolese government in and the World Bank in Kinshasa , international and local NGOs as well as Congolese civil society called for the moratorium on all new logging concessions to be maintained until such time as strict conditions were complied with by the Congolese government.

Doug Anderson: Forest plan is at odds with its noble goals
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5115895.html


Informant: Deane T. Rimerman

Earlier this year, over 1,500 RAN supporters sent letters to Weyerhaeuser demanding that the company cancel plans to log a scenic watershed in Pemberton, B.C. within two weeks of hearing from RAN supporters Weyerhaeuser reversed their decision to log.

Just a few hundred miles North of Pemberton, another controversy is brewing on the islands of Haida Gwaii where members of the Haida Nation are fighting for their cultural heritage.

The Haida want access to detailed information Weyerhaeuser holds about the old growth cedar trees that have been a central part of Haida culture for generations. Weyerhaeuser wants to log more old growth.

Click the link below to send a letter to Weyerhaeuser CEO Steve Rogel demanding that the company protect endangered forests and turn over information about Haida Gwaii's last remaining old growth cedars to the Haida people to make better management decisions over these forests.

http://action.ran.org/ctt.asp?u=2844473&l=70851

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada decided in late November on a case that the Haida Nation launched to protect the ancient old-growth forests of Haida Gwaii. The Court held in favor of the Haida, holding that the Province has a legal duty to consult with the Haida about timber harvesting in Weyerhaeuser's Tree Farm.

In the Haida case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Government of British Columbia must consult with the Haida Nation and accommodate their interests when renewing the tree farm license issued in an area claimed by them as aboriginal title lands. For further information about this case, visit EAGLE at http://action.ran.org/ctt.asp?u=2844473&l=70868.

The Court affirmed that, "In all its dealings with Aboriginal peoples, from the assertion of sovereignty to the resolution of claims and the implementation of treaties, the Crown must act honourably." "The Court has held that the Crown has a duty of honour, and now it will be our duty to hold them to that obligation," says Guujaaw. "This is the best chance for the well-being and sustainability of the land."

Rather than see the writing on the wall, Weyerhaeuser is withholding mapping information about old growth cedar requested by the Haida for analysis and planning to ensure that the ecological and cultural benefits of cedar are sustained for present and future generations.

Please click the link below to demand that Weyerhaeuser respect the cultural needs of the Haida Nation.

http://action.ran.org/ctt.asp?u=2844473&l=70852

Very sincerely,

--Jess, Sharon and Brant
The RAN Old Growth Team
July 29th, 2004

P.S. Grassroots market pressure can change the way corporations do business. After receiving nearly 1,500 emails from RAN supporters in August, grocery chain Trader Joe's decided to stop buying paper bags from Weyerhaeuser, the number one destroyer of old growth forests in America.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=9001889


Informant: Deane T. Rimerman

"Die katastrophalen Überschwemmungen und Schlammlawinen, welche jetzt auf den Philippinen mehrere Hundert Menschenleben forderten, sind die Folge jahrzehntelanger Abholzungen und Monokulturwirtschaft", sagte Claus-Peter Hutter, Präsident der auf den Philippinen mit Regenwaldschutz-Projekten engagierten Umweltstiftung Euronatur. Es sei heute notwendiger denn je, abgeholzte Regenwaldflächen zu rehabilitieren.

http://www.sonnenseite.com/fp/archiv/Akt-News/5694.php

"Yesterday, activists in 12 cities, including New York and San Francisco, unfurled banners and distributed leaflets at Victoria's Secret stores, a company official said."

Victoria's Secret focus of environmental group's ire over paper use
Dec 3, 2004 3:13AM

The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Dec. 3--How many trees does it take to produce 350 million Victoria's Secret catalogs each year?

Too many, says a California environmental group that organized protests yesterday in Columbus and other cities.

San Francisco-based ForestEthics says forests in the foothills of the
Canadian Rockies in Alberta are being destroyed to supply paper for
Victoria's Secret and other large catalog companies.

In October 2003, the group identified Victoria's Secret, a division of
Columbus-based Limited Brands, as the No. 3 catalog producer and in recent months stepped up a campaign against such paper use, which includes protests.

Yesterday, activists in 12 cities, including New York and San Francisco, unfurled banners and distributed leaflets at Victoria's Secret stores, a company official said. Kristi Chester Vance of ForestEthics said protests were planned in 100 cities.

In Columbus, private security guards halted a protest at Easton Town Center within a minute. A dozen protesters, mostly college students, regrouped at Morse Road, unfurling a banner that read, "Victoria's Dirty Secret: They Destroy Endangered Forests.' ForestEthics wants the company to boost the recycled paper content of its catalogs to 50 percent in five years.

Little recycled paper goes into the publications: 25 million clearance catalogs contain 10 percent recycled paper while the rest contain none.

Limited Brands spokesman Anthony Hebron said the company is working with its paper supplier, International Paper, and other potential suppliers to develop suitable paper with higher recycled content.

"We are doing some testing right now on how we're going to increase the percent of recycled content' in the catalogs, Hebron said.

He said clearance catalogs will contain 50 percent recycled paper by February and that the company wants to get paper containing 10 percent recycled content into its regular catalogs as soon as possible.

Hebron called the company a leader in waste reduction and paper recycling. Last year, it recycled 720 tons of office paper, 10,300 tons of cardboard and 410,000 pounds of alcohol-containing products.

"They need to look at our true record, and it's a pretty good one right now,' he said.

Hebron said recycling efforts predate a meeting in May between company officials and ForestEthics representatives.


Informant: Deane T. Rimerman