Reply #51: This involves the WORLD rainforests. Here's the central African situation [View All]

[Nothing Without Hope]

from a report published in early February, before the US secret plan to undermine European efforts to control illegal rainforest logging was exposed.

Source: Greenpeace International
Posted by: Greenpeace International - archive
Posted on: Feb 5, 2005 @ 7:35 am
http://www.ems.org/nws/2005/02/05/africas_rainfore

Africa's rainforest depend on cutting out corruption

Congo-Brazzaville, 5 February 2005 - Greenpeace doubts that the well-intentioned pledges to protect the Congo Basin's forests made by African heads of state and French President Jacques Chirac at the Brazzaville 'forest Summit' today will be followed by actions (1).

"The time for talking is over. If we are to save the great forests of the Congo Basin, Africa needs action not words," warned Jean-Luc Roux, head of Greenpeace International's Political Unit.

The international environmental organisation said it will intensify its campaign in the coming months to get countries of the G8 and European Union to move from declarations to action and to intensify efforts to promote transparency, fight corruption and clean up the African timber trade.

Corruption and a lack of political will are increasingly being cited as the principal obstacles to protecting the Congo Basin's forest resources. Illegal logging in the region is widespread and often takes place with complete impunity. It results in the loss of precious flora and fauna, widespread social conflict and significant costs to state treasuries (2).

(snip - more of the article plus bibliography at link)

The last rainforests of the world are being ripped apart by violent criminals who sell the wood to the industrialized countries for things like flooring in housing tracts. The Bush Administration has been secretly plotting to undermine years of work by the European countries on coming to an agreement to fight this rape of the planet. The rest of the world knows this now, because a secret US State Department document was leaked. But OUR media - the Poodle Press - have blacked this story out entirely.

This is a huge scandal, and its censorship is another!