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International Forest Products (Interfor) is one of the worst destroyers of coastal temperate rainforests on the planet. They are one of the largest logging companies on the coast of British Columbia, averaging an annual province-wide cut of 4 million cubic meters of timber throughout the 1990’s. Approximately two-thirds of that cut has come from ancient coastal temperate rainforests, a forest type recognized by the World Resource Institute of Washington DC as the most endangered forest type on the planet. Nearly all of the trees come from clear-cuts.
 In 1999, the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development called for a halt to the further destruction or degradation of the world’s remaining primary forests. On June 8 of this year over 400 of the world’s top scientists called for an end to industrial logging on the British Columbia coast. Despite this, Interfor’s cut comes almost exclusively from primary coastal forests. Interfor plans to road-build and clearcut dozens of areas on the coast that have as yet seen almost no industrial activity, including Talheo/Hot Springs Creek, the Sandell River complex, Kumealeon Lake, Lockhart-Gordon, Draney Inlet, Takush-Lenore Lake, the Klaskish on Vancouver Island and many others. These areas include critical habitat for grizzly bears, salmon spawning, endangered bird species and other forest-dependent species. Interfor’s operations have been challenged by concerned citizens throughout the province, in places such as the Great Bear Rainforest, Clayoquot Sound and the Elaho Valley. In both 1995 and 1997 the hereditary chiefs of the Nuxalk First Nation demanded that Interfor abstain from logging Ista,one of the nation’s most sacred sites. Rather than acceding to this demand, Interfor sought punitive measures, resulting in the jailing of the Nuxalk chiefs and the subsequent destruction of Ista.
Currently, citizens are requesting that Interfor stop cutting in the ecologically critical Elaho Valley and are being jailed for doing so. Interfor is also currently logging in Clayoquot Sound despite its recent declaration as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Interfor is undermining the international recognition of the natural heritage of the Sound while people are being jailed for the first time since 1993 defending it. Interfor employees have consistently used violence to stifle citizen concerns with attacks against environmentalists occurring in Bella Coola, Ure Creek and elsewhere.  In September 1999, over 70 Interfor loggers attacked and hospitalized environmentalists in the Elaho Valley while company management looked on and videotaped the violence. When questioned about the violence, Interfor Chief Forester Ric Slaco stated that “some people involved found it very satisfying.” This year, InterFor loggers attacked two FAN activists near Clatse Lake in the Great Bear Rainforest.
InterFor employees attack in the Elaho
IS THIS THE TYPE OF COMPANY WHICH SHOULD BE InterFor CONTROLLING OUR FORESTS FUTURE?
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to learn more about InterFor check out these websites
www.earthstationtv.com
www.kickinterfor.com
friends of the elaho
western canada wilderness committee
www.stoltmannwilderness.org
greenpeace |
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