Today Greenpeace activists "tagged" the Saga Wind, a ship carrying wood products clearcut by Doman Industries, with the word 'CLEARCUT' circled with a slash through it. The marking is intended to alert Americans and Europeans that the wood products they purchase from Doman Industries, the parent company of Western Forest Products, come from the clearcutting of Canada's old-growth rainforest.
The marking is also intended to remind British Columbians that B.C.'s logging industry primarily exports unfinished wood products out of the province.
Other Greenpeace members in inflatables stretched a banner across the bow of the Saga Wind warning that THIS SHIP EXPORTS RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION. The ship is carrying approximately 50,000 cubic metres of pulp and dimensional lumber, for export to the United States and Europe.
"We're marking this ship because people have a right to know that when they buy wood from Doman they're buying into the destruction of B.C.'s rainforest," said Gavin Edwards, Greenpeace forest campaigner. "Right now, in the absence of a clear eco-labelling system, there's absolutely no way they could know that these products come to them at the expense of our rainforest and the expense of B.C. jobs."
Despite recent efforts to invest more money in value-added manufacturing, the logging industry in British Columbia employs fewer people per cubic metre of wood cut than many other jurisdictions.
"Our government's primary commitment is to maintain an economy based on high-volume exports, not one based on value-added industries. That's why we see the export of pulp rather than paper, and dimensional lumber instead of finished products," said Tamara Stark, Greenpeace Canada forests campaigner. "That's bad news for British Columbians, and bad news for B.C.'s rainforest." B.C.'s logging industry employs only one person per 1,000 cubic metres of wood cut, compared to a U.S. national average of three jobs for the same amount of wood, while California manages to derive 5 jobs. Meanwhile only 6 per cent of Forest Renewal B.C. spending is committed to value-added initiatives in B.C. According to a report published by the Select Standing Committee on Forests, Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, "Lumber Remanufacturing in British Columbia", value-added manufacturing creates an additional 4.55 jobs compared to the one job created in direct logging.
Greenpeace is calling for: an additional investment in value- added manufacturing; an end to clearcutting throughout the rainforest; and a moratorium on logging in the remaining intact rainforest valleys.