Archived press release

Dead wood: the shocking legacy of logging

23 August 1999

As industry-induced forest fires again rage in Indonesia, commercial logging continues to cause devastating damage to the world's rainforests, a shocking new report warns today.

The report “Life After Logging”, from a coalition of environmental groups [1] including Friends of the Earth and the Rainforest Foundation, provides proof that logging:

. threatens the survival of species including gorillas, chimpanzees, the jaguar, ocelot and many already rare birds, including the toco toucan and the hyacinth macaw;
. destroys forest communities, from Brazilian Indians to Solomon Islanders;
. damages local and “downstream” environments, through flooding, soil erosion and fire. Millions of hectares of forest area was lost to fire in Indonesia, and some of the worst fires recorded raged through Northern Brazil in 1998;
. exacerbates the dangerous climate change crisis.

Tropical rainforests are some of the world's most precious ecosystems with a vast number of species. Commercial logging is the biggest threat to the ecological integrity of these forests and leads to further colonisation and agricultural activities. The extent of the damage it causes varies between different types of forest and different logging operations, but even“selective” logging causes collateral damage to other trees and leaves the forest more susceptible to fire.

Government inertia and hollow promises made by the timber industry have failed to control unsustainable logging and without radical changes there are limited prospects that they will do so. The full environmental and social costs of logging are not reflected in the market price of wood products. And Governments show no political will to regulate the industry effectively. The industry is heavily involved in bribery, corruption and political violence around the world, from Brazil to Cambodia. Much of the world's tropical wood products are produced from illegal sources.

The report also challenges the myth peddled by the timber industry and some Governments,that so called 'reduced impact logging' (RIL) can help to save primary rainforests as it fails to address wider impacts of logging such as thinning the forest and providing access for hunting.

Sarah Tyack of Friends of the Earth said:

“Logging in primary rainforest damages the local and global environment with tragic effects for people and biodiversity. In the UK retailers and the timber industry must stop promoting the many absurd “green” claims made on tropical timber products,giving the consumer the impression that everything's OK in the rainforest. The long term future of old growth forest can only be secured through a reduction of the amount of timber being consumed, action from Governments to end illegal and unsustainble logging in tropical forests and reliable independent certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council.”

Simon Counsell, Director of Rainforest Foundation UK

"Seven years of inter-government discussion on forests since the Earth Summit have completely failed to address the devastating impact of commercial logging on tropical rainforests. The scientific evidence now clearly suggests that, unless loggers can be brought under control, the fate of vast areas of rainforest will be irrevocably sealed in the coming few years. If much of the planet's biodiversity is to survive, international agencies such as the World Bank will have to support the rapid dismantling of the tropical logging industry."

NOTES TO EDITORS

[1] The organisations launching the report are: Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace International, Environmental Defence Fund, Rainforest Foundation UK and Retten Den Regenwald.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust