"(The Home Depot) ...does not intend to develop an old growth policy, and never will." - Home Depot spokesperson, March 3rd, 1999
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'3 clearcuts now scar the sacred
valley of Ista after Interfor began logging here in 1996.'
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Photo - G. Edwards/Lighthawk |
The Home Depot is the world's largest retailer of ancient forest products. Across North America, the Home Depot is stocking it's shelves with timber from Canada's last remaining ancient temperate rainforests; and refuses to inform customers where these products originate. Environmentalists have tried to reason with the company for years. Despite our efforts, Home Depot continues to profit from ancient forest destruction. Money talks. The only thing Home Depot will listen to is a boycott of all their wood products until they fulfill their promises and go ancient forest free.
The Canadian Connection
& Facts:
Home Depot is growing rapidly here in Canada, with over 40 stores with another 13
scheduled to open throughout 1999. The Home Depot is fast becoming Canada's largest
retailer of ancient forest products. Take a look at the facts below to gain more insight
into how their activities and products are affecting your world.
- Cedar originating from Interfor, the
largest (and nastiest) logging company extracting wood from Canada's rainforest. Cedar
trees provide key denning habitat for the grizzly, kermode (Spirit) and black bears of the
Great Bear Rainforest.
- Hemlock, used for mouldings and door frames
made by Sauder Industries, an affiliate of Interfor.
- Cedar garden products made by
Summerwood and doors made by Madawaska, both of whom buy their cedar from the Great Bear
Rainforest.
- Home Depot is a US-based multinational and is
the world's largest retailer of ancient forest products.
- Home Depot intends to double its
number of stores in Canada from 43 to 86 over the next three years, increasing demand for
products from the Great Bear Rainforest.
- Home Depot has made many promises around
phasing out wood from endangered forests around the world, but has yet to keep those
promises.
- Nearly 80% of the Earth's original
forests have been degraded or destroyed.
- 80% of the large pristine valleys in Canada's
Rainforest have already been lost. Virtually every remaining pristine valley within the
Great Bear Rainforest is scheduled to have a road built into it, and then be clearcut
logged, within the next ten years.
- In the Amazon Basin, an area of
rainforest nearly the size of Belgium is destroyed each year, resulting in the extinction
of thousands of species.
- The demand for wood from Southeast Asia is so
high that, at current rates, nearly all of the remaining ancient forests will be destroyed
by 2010.
- Numerous other ancient forest products
are on the shelves of your local Home Depot, from the endangered Redwoods of Northern
California, to Mahogany products from the Amazon, or Luan and Ramin from
SE Asia.
Promises, Promises.....
1992 Promise: "We have
aggressively pursued and are continuing to pursue alternatives to rainforest and other
endangered wood." -The Home Depot, 1992
Reality: Six years after making a commitment to phase out its purchases of wood from unsustainable sources, Home Depot continues to sell wood from endangered forests around the world.
1997 Promise: Home Depot pledged in writing to eliminate use of any lumber, decking, fencing trellises or any other products from ancient redwood trees found in Northern California.
Reality: Home Depot has admitted in recent meetings that it failed to pass this demand on to its lumber purchasers or to its wood suppliers, nor have Home Depot instituted any tracking mechanism to ensure that their redwood supplies are ancient forest-free.
1999 Promise: Home Depot has essentially pledged to buy more "good" wood by joining the Certified Forest Products Council and promoting, for now, the Forest Stewardship Council as the best certification scheme.
Reality: Home Depot has not yet pledged to stop selling wood from the world's most endangered forests - that is wood being ripped out of the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, the Amazon, Southeast Asia, and other threatened forests. Because the company is such a large consumer of wood products, and because it is growing so rapidly, Home Depot could actually dramatically increase the amount of wood it is buying from old growth forests while also buying slightly more certified wood. In order to truly have an impact to help preserve old growth forests everywhere, Home Depot must immediately eliminate endangered forest products from its stores while it begins to phase in more certified wood.
More Background information on Home Depot!
For More Information Contact Mission Control:
Forest Action Network
Box 625, Bella Coola, BC, V0T 1C0, Canada
Tel: (250) 799-5800 Fax: (250) 799-5830
Email: fanbc@fanweb.org
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Last Updated Wednesday, May 26, 1999 03:39 AM.