FAN TARGETS B.C. GOVERNMENT'S LUMBER TRADE AGENDA IN BEIJING

 

7 November 2003 - Vancouver/Beijing. As a follow-up to its April 2003 boycott campaign launch in China, today the Forest Action Network (FAN) launched three initiatives targeting the B.C. government's trade agenda in Beijing:

  • Half-page ads in China Daily, China's largest English-language paper, and in China Youth Daily, one of the country's largest Chinese-language papers.
  • Digital mailout to 8,000 potential BC lumber buyers in China.
  • Campaign to ensure the Beijing 2008 Olympics are ancient forest destruction-free.
“Today, environmental groups are putting the BC Government on record that they must support conservation,” stated Greg Higgs of FAN. “The Great Bear Rainforest is still unprotected, endangered species are still at risk, and clearcutting continues. We are standing together to oppose BC Premier Gordon Campbell's attempts to promote BC lumber in China without solving basic problems back home.”

The advertisements, which states that Canada's ancient temperate rainforests are “suffering from unsustainable clearcut logging,” are the first step in FAN's campaign to ensure the Beijing 2008 Olympics are ancient forest destruction-free.

FAN has also started a digital mailout to 8,000 lumber buyers in China. The mailout urges potential BC customers to boycott BC ancient rainforest lumber until the Great Bear Rainforest and endangered species are protected .

“As negotiations to determine the fate of the Great Bear Rainforest draw to a close, all of these initiatives serve as reminders to the BC Government and the forestry industry that if the outcome fails to live up to its promised standards, an escalation of these and other campaigns can be expected,” stated Clement Lam of FAN.
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