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Environment Action
Alerts for
May 1 - May 8, 2001
from League of Conservation Voters May 1, 2001
LCV WEEKLY ENVIRONMENTAL UPDATE April 30, 2001
The League of Conservation Voters
(LCV) continues to monitor Congressional
and
Administration activity and highlight lawmakers for their actions on
important environmental issues. For a concise look at
current events on
Capitol Hill and beyond click below.
=====================================
Congress Watch
=====================================
Senator Lincoln Chafee. s
brownfields bill passed the Senate 99-0. The
legislation
now moves to the House where a weaker bill is expected.
Preview the upcoming debate and see Senators. reaction to
the bill. s
passage.
The budget conference and several appropriations hearings
got underway
last week. House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Chairman
Sonny Callahan
(R-AL) pledged to restore many of the budget cuts to the
Army Corps of Engineers proposed in President Bush. s
spending outline.
Plus, see this
week. s schedule of events and learn more about what members
of Congress are doing on the environment.
Get the details at Congress Watch:
http://www.lcv.org/
=====================================
Eye on the Administration
=====================================
Never a dull moment . round here
partners. According to the Washington
Post, the Bush
administration is looking for a legal way to scuttle the
new Roadless policy with a final decision due this Friday.
Also last week,
administration officials signaled
support for the snowmobiling ban in
national parks;
however the details of the agreement leave open the
possibility for reintroducing the machines in the near
future.
The Washington Post also
reported that Interior Secretary Norton is
preparing to
shelve a plan to reintroduce grizzly bears in two wilderness
areas in Idaho and Montana.
Find out more by visiting Eye on the Administration:
http://www.lcv.org/presidential/
====================================================================
The LCV Environmental Update is
brought to you by the League of
Conservation Voters, the
nonprofit political voice of the environmental
community. LCV is the only national organization dedicated
full-time to
informing the public about the
environmental records of federally elected
officials and
candidates.
Committee hearing
schedules and floor votes in this update are retrieved
from "Greensheets" at http://www.greensheets.com and "Environment and
Energy Daily" at http://www.eenews.net.
LCV publishes annually the National Environmental Scorecard,
which rates
members of Congress on the most critical
environmental votes cast during
that year.
WHAT YOU CAN DO!
* Add your voice to the tens of
thousands of citizens across the country
already holding
elected officials accountable for their votes on the
environment and helping to elect a pro-environment
Congress. Join LCV in
its fight to prevent
the hard-won progress of the last 30 years from being
dismantled. http://lcv.org/join
* Check out our website at www.lcv.org !
League of Conservation Voters
1920 L Street, NW Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
202-785-8683 Fax: 202-835-0491
Email: lcv@lcv.org
from Rainforest Action Network May 1, 2001
In this Post :
#1 Report from NE leg
of U'wa tour and April 26th Day of Solidarity
#2 Press
Release April 26th U'wa President Visits Bernstein HQ
#3
Reuters story April 26th
#4 Press Release April 25th
U'wa Leader Speaks at Arms Manufacturer's
Shareholder
Meeting
For background info and
organizing resources on the U'wa struggle check
out :
www.ran.org www.amazonwatch.org www.moles.org www.uwacolombia.org
To get involved in local
solidarity work for the U'wa contact
Rainforest Action
Network at 415-398-4404/1-800-989-RAIN or
organize@ran.org
***** LATE BREAKING NEWS -
Today
April 30th over 500 people mostly U'wa and other indigenous
peoples marched in Cubara the town nearest Oxy's drillsite
to protest
Plan Colombia and the exploitation of oil on
indigenous lands. U'wa
leaders say this is
just the beginning of the mobilizations and that if
the
drilling and violence is not stopped then many more communities will
be taking to the streets to demand peace and justice!
__________________________________________________________
#1 U'WA TOUR OF NORTH EAST A HUGE
SUCCESS!
U'wa President Roberto
Perez has just completed a tour of 5 states in
the
Northeast. The tour organized by the Boston Earth Action Network and
assisted by long time U'wa supporters like Rainforest
Relief, The
Activism Center at the Wetlands Preserve,
the Colombia Media Project of
NYC and dozens of
community groups such as RI Jobs With Justice, Project
Hope, RI Global Action Network, students at Brown
University, Colombian
Action Coalition of CT, NYU law
students, High Mowing High School, MIT
Social Justice
Coalition, and Columbia's University's Center for Energy,
Marine Transportation, and Public Policy The tour allowed
Perez to
educate thousands of people about the U'wa
struggle and to put strategic
pressure on a number of
the corporations who are backing Plan Colombia
and the
drilling on U'wa land.
Senor
Perez began his east coast tour with a speaking event at MIT where
he was joined by ARMANDO VALBUENA, President of the National
Indigenous
Organization of Colombia and PROFESSOR NOAM
CHOMSKY, world renowned
intellectual and outspoken
critic of American foreign policy. Professor
Chomsky
expressed his support for the U'wa and other indigenous
communities in Colombia and vowed to highlight the U'wa
struggle in his
ongoing criticism of Plan Colombia - the
$1.3 billion U.S. military aid
package to Colombia.
Other stops on the tour included
numerous educational events, media
interviews, strategy
meetings with activists and lawyers and direct
confrontations with 3 of the US corporations most implicated
in the
ongoing human rights and environmental tragedy in
Colombia. The tour
visited the Sikorsky helicopter plant
in Connecticut who received a
contract to build 30
Blackhawk helicopters for Plan Colombia. There is
currently another contract pending for 30 more helicopters.
In addition
to making connections with local organizers
Perez recorded a statement
for the workers of the plant
urging them to realize that the helicopters
they made
would be used to kill indigenous peoples in Colombia.
Perez also attended the
shareholder's meeting of the other major arms
manufacturer providing weapons to Colombia - Textron
Technologies maker
of Bell Huey Helicopters. U'wa
supporters joined with members of New
England's Kurdish
community and representatives from the Sisters of
Mercy
to call upon Textron to stop selling weapons to repressive regimes
that violate basic human rights.
On April 26th Mr. Perez joined forces with a number of
indigenous
leaders including representatives from the
Dineh people at Black Mesa
Arizona, and indigenous
communities in Peru and Ecuador to challenge the
financial institutions that profit from the extraction of
resources from
native lands. Organized by NY based
Rainforest Relief and The Activism
Center at Wetlands,
the day's action brought 50-60 protesters to the
doors
of Bernstein/Alliance Capital's offices to demand that they follow
Fidelity. s lead and divest from Occidental Petroleum and
Colombia. s Oil
Wars. Activists carried a 12ft. tall Oxy
monster puppet, placards,
banners and drummed atop Oxy
Oil drums while Senor Perez spoke to crowds
who had
gathered around the demonstration. Activists attempted to
deliver a letter from the U. wa to Sanford Bernstein but
were denied
entrance. The company then sent a
representative to meet with Mr. Perez
who handed him the
letter denouncing Oxy. s drilling and Bernstein. s
financial backing of the project.
While this was happening at
Bernstein/Alliance Capital headquarters in
NY,
solidarity actions were taking place in 8 cities across the country
at various Bernstein and Alliance
offices. (including Cleveland who
pulled it
together just in time!). A strong message was sent to
Bernstein/Alliance Capital that the U'wa have friends in
many places and
that we are uniting our voices to stop
the destruction of U'wa lands and
culture. The message to Bernstein and all other
companies who are
willing to profit from genocide is
that we hold them accountable for the
safety of the U'wa
people and that unless Oxy's drilling is stopped we
will
be back!
After the Bernstein
demonstration Perez joined dozens of supporters for
the
Dineh people who are resisting Peabody Coal's strip mining on their
ancestral lands in the 4 corners regions of the SW
United States in
marching on Lehman brothers, Peabody
Coal's main financial backer.
Solidarity
speeches were made calling about Wall St. to recognize the
true value of the land and respect the rights of indigenous
peoples to
protect their ancestral homelands from
resource extraction.
On Saturday
28th, at one of the tour's final events, Senor Perez
addressed thousands of environmentalists participating in
EarthFest in
Boston, making the links between the
environment, human rights and Plan
Colombia. Later that
evening, Mr.Perez attended a Colombian event with
guest
speaker Senator McGovern, of Worcester, MA who has been aware of
the U. wa. s situation.
Perez left the U.S. with messages of thanks to all those who
have
supported the U'wa people and with renewed hope
that together our
movements in Colombia, the U.S. and
around the world can stop Plan
Colombia and put an end
to oil exploitation once and for all!
Much congratulations and thanks are in order to Kim Foster
from BEAN
(Boston Earth Action Network) for her tireless
efforts to pull the tour
together and to Cassandra
Smithies who provided seamless translation for
Senor
Perez under various difficult circumstances.
* To get involved in ongoing work
for the U. wa in the northeast - CT,
RI, MA, NH, ME
Contact Boston Earth Action Network . 617-623-2453 or
email localseed@earthlink.net
* For
New York actions contact Rainforest Relief - 212-966-4831
jer235@nyu.edu or Wetlands at 212-966-4831
* In Vermont contact ACERCA -
802-863-0571 colombia@acera.org
TO BECOME A LOCAL CONTACT FOR YOUR REGION EMAIL Patrick at
organize@ran.org or call 415-398-4404/1-800-989-RAIN
__________________________________________________________
#2
Press release
from: The Activism Center at Wetlands Preserve, Amazon
Watch, Rainforest Action Network, Rainforest Relief
For Immediate Release, April 26,
2001
Contacts: Adam Weissman (212) 966-4831; Kim Foster
(617) 438-2326
Joan Roney (802) 233-6325; Patrick
Reinsborough (415) 305-7246
U.
WA LEADER AND ACTIVISTS TARGET OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM'S LARGEST INVESTOR
Protests in Eight Cities Call on
Bernstein/Alliance Capital /AXA
Financial to Divest from
Occidental and the Deadly Oil Project in
Colombian
Cloudforest Region
(New York, NY)--U. wa tribal chief accompanied by human
rights and
environmental activists demonstrated outside
the offices of investment
giant Bernstein/Alliance
Capital today to protest the company. s holdings
in the
Los Angeles based-Occidental Petroleum (OXY)under fire for
drilling on the land of the traditional U. wa people in
Colombia.
Bernstein/Alliance Capital offices were also
the target of non-violent
protests in six other cities
today, including Los Angeles, San
Francisco, San
Antonio, Dallas, Washington DC, and Chicago.
Following the demonstration U. wa leader Roberto Perez
attempted to meet
with Bernstein. s management after
sending a written request earlier in
the week, but was
denied an audience. Instead he delivered a letter to
company. s CEO expressing his tribe. s deep concern over
their investment
in OXY. In the letter he
demands as the U. wa. s representative that the
company
uses its position as OXY. s largest investor to stop the drilling
on the tribe. s sacred homeland.
Last year, OXY. s previous top investor, Fidelity
Investments, divested
more than half of its OXY stock
following a hard-hitting public campaign
targeting the
mutual fund company over the U. wa controversy. Following
the success with Fidelity, the U. wa and their supporters
have now turned
their attention to Bernstein/Alliance
Capital and its majority owner AXA
Financial as the
central targets for activist pressure in the United
States and Europe.
In the letter from December of 2000 addressed to Mr. Roger
Hertog,
Bernstein/Alliance Capital. s Vice Chairman, the
U. wa leader stated,
. Occidental. s drilling in our
ancestral territory runs the risk of
destroying the
ancient culture of our ancestors that we have carried on
from generation to generation. The drilling creates social,
economic,
and cultural deterioration that has and
continues to lead to violence in
our
territory. For that reason, we demand that you divest entirely from
Occidental..
The U. wa who believe . oil is the blood of Mother Earth.
are adamantly
opposed to the oil project on their sacred
land. They blame the project
for escalating
violence in the already conflict-torn region. In Colombia
oil projects lead to tremendous environmental and cultural
devastation
resulting from oil spills from pipeline
bombings and deforestation from
new oil roads.
. We are urging Bernstein and other
major Occidental Petroleum
shareholders to follow
Fidelity. s example and divest from OXY before
they get
dragged into the center of this controversy. Fidelity learned
the hard way that being OXY. s business partner was a hazard
to its
image,. said Kim Foster of Boston Earth Action
Network.
Bernstein/Alliance
Capital has become the largest investor in OXY in
recent
months while Fidelity Investments has dropped some 18 million
shares representing over $400 million following a campaign
blitz earlier
this year. That campaign included more
than 75 protests at Fidelity
offices worldwide and
on-going demonstrations at the corporate
headquarters in
Boston. Last April, Bernstein. s Executive, Roger Hertog
committed to the U'wa that he would seriously investigate
the matter.
Since then, his company has acquired
an additional 10 million shares of Occidental stock.
The U. wa have also become a strong
voice in opposition to Plan Colombia
- the $1.3 billion
US military aid package - and point out that one of
the
Plan. s major objectives is to protect oil interests. Just two days
after the Plan was passed by US Congress, the U'wa
homeland became
heavily militarized and their peaceful
blockade near OXY. s drill site
was violently disrupted.
Today, over a thousand soldiers guard the area.
Meanwhile guerrilla bombings of Oxy. s Caņo Limon pipeline
have
dramatically escalated since Plan Colombia took
effect --to over sixty
attacks so far this year. Fearing
similar violence will further spread
to the heart of
their territory, the U'wa say that they will continue
their uncompromising resistance.
###
__________________________________________________________
#3
Thursday April 26, 4:20 pm
Eastern Time
Protests urge Sanford Bernstein divest in
Occidental
NEW YORK, April 26
(Reuters) - Protesters on Thursday tried to meet with
the management of investment group Sanford
Bernstein/Alliance Capital to
urge the company to divest
its shares of oil company Occidental Corp.
(NYSE:OXY -
news), which they say is drilling on sacred indigenous lands
in Colombia.
Activists from environmental groups Rainforest Action
Network and Amazon
Watch say Occidental is drilling on
ancestral territory and risks
destroying the culture of
the traditional U'wa people.
The
U'wa, a semi-nomadic tribe from northeastern Colombia, have in the
past threatened mass suicide if Occidental does not cease
drilling. They
believe ``oil is the blood of mother
earth,'' and have been fighting
Occidental for eight
years.
On Thursday, about 60
protesters drummed on oil barrels painted with
Occidental logos and carried a 15-foot-tall puppet outside
of Sanford
Bernstein's Manhattan headquarters.
The protesters say the investment
group is the single largest investor
in Occidental,
following Fidelity Investment's divestiture of 60 percent
of its 18 million shares worth more than $500 million.
Fidelity was the
target of protests last year by U'wa
supporters.
Company officials at
Fidelity, Sanford Bernstein/Alliance Capital and
Occidental did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Last week, Roberto Perez, a leader
of the U'wa people, sent a letter
requesting a meeting
with Roger Hertog, a Sanford Bernstein vice
chairman.
Adam Weissman, activist at the
Wetlands Preserve in New York, said
investment company
management later refused Perez
entrance to management
offices, but a representative came down to meet
with the
U'wa leader.
Fidelity last year
claimed that its divestment had nothing to do with
the
U'wa protests, although the action came just weeks
after
Perez visted their offices.
``We've tried to work with Occidental and they've shown no
desire to
leave U'wa lands. Therefore, we are appealing
to their
investors,'' said Weissman.
_________________________________________________________________
#4
Amazon Watch *Amnesty International Group 49 * Mercy
Consolidated Assets
Management *Rainforest Action
Network *Rainforest Relief
For Immediate Release: April 25, 2001
Contacts: Kim Foster, (mobile) 617-438-2326, Patrick
Reinsborough,
(mobile) 415-305-7246 (for Colombia)
Mehmet Akbas, 401-949-6853 (for Turkey)
Interviews, B-Roll and Photos
Available! Interviews, B-Roll and Photos
Available! Interviews, B-Roll and Photos
Available!
Concern for Human
Rights in Colombia and Turkey Wins Overwhelming
Support
from TEXTRON Shareholders
U. wa
Leader & Sisters of Mercy Address Annual Meeting, Resolution gains
7.7%
Providence, RI~ Roberto Perez, President of the
U. wa people of
Colombia, and Sister Valerie Heinonen of
Mercy Consolidated Assets
Management won over an
impressive 7.7% of shareholders today at the
TEXTRON
Annual Meetings in a plea for support of a Shareholder
Resolution being introduced by nuns from Mercy Consolidated
Assets
Management. The resolution calls for
TEXTRON to adopt a series of
comprehensive
moral and ethical criteria for all arms sales. Textron
Technologies is a leading provider of US military aircraft
to abusive
regimes around the world, including Turkey,
Indonesia, Burma and
Colombia.
Perez, Heinonen and others addressed
TEXTRON Board Members and investors
inside the meeting,
and the vote resulted in 7.7% of the shareholders,
representing more than 8.2 million shares, voting in favor
of the
resolution. 3% of the vote is
considered by most investor standards
to be an influential act of . shareholder
activism. . . The fact that 8.2
million
shares voted in favor of the resolution shows that there is
growing support among shareholders for human rights criteria
for arms
sales,. said Heinonen.
Perez addressed the
shareholders, imploring the Board not to sell
helicopters through Plan Colombia, warning investors
that: . Plan
Colombia is a plan of
violence. It is a plan of death. It is a plan
for invading the land of indigenous peoples in Colombia, and
I have come
here to let people know that TEXTRON
helicopters will be used to
massacre in Colombia..
Mehmet Akbas, member of the Kurdish of the Community of New
England also
addressed shareholders about the pending
sale of 140 attack helicopters
to Turkey. .
Turkish repression of Kurdish people living in Turkey has
resulted in the destruction of more than 4000 villages,
displacing more
than 4 million people from their homes,.
Akbas said. TEXTRON Board
Members didn.
t address the issues of human rights abuses in Turkey, but
instead responded that they were looking forward to the
sale, and that
the helicopters would be build in Turkey,
creating 1000 new jobs.
Each day countless innocent civilians are being displaced,
terrorized,
and assassinated throughout Colombia by
armed groups, many with ties to
paramilitaries and the
Colombian Military. This military is being backed
by
powerful US interests: oil companies, weapons and helicopter
manufacturers.
Mr. Perez is touring the US to foster growing awareness of
the
connection between oil, military contracts and Plan
Colombia. A major
component of Plan Colombia is securing
access to the country. s oil
reserves through protecting
current oil production as well as "securing"
the
frontiers in order to tap unexplored reserves -- an objective that
the U.S. Government is not publicly
admitting. The U. wa people, a
peaceful tribe
of 5,000 who live in the cloud forests of northeastern
Colombia, have captured headlines around the world for their
crusade to
halt Occidental Petroleum. s (OXY)
exploratory oil drilling operations on
land the tribe
considers sacred.
Just two days after Plan Colombia was passed by US congress,
the U'wa
homeland became heavily militarized and their
peaceful blockade against
OXY was violently disrupted.
Today, thousands of armed soldiers guard
the area
surrounding the drill site. Meanwhile guerrilla bombings of
OXY. s pipeline has dramatically escalated . over sixty
attacks so far
this year -- in retaliation to U.S.
military aid. Fearing that this
violence will further
spread to the heart of their territory, the U'wa
say
that they will continue their uncompromising resistance.
Perez. s US tour will culminate in a
National Day of Action against
Bernstein/Alliance
Capital, the largest shareholder of Occidental
Petroleum. Demonstrations are expected at Bernstein/Alliance
Capital
offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Washington DC, Seattle,
Dallas and San
Antonio. Perez will present a statement from his tribe
to the New York headquarters of the investment
fund
from Natural Resources Defense Council May 1, 2001
========================================
Natural Resources Defense Council's
CALIFORNIA ACTIVIST NETWORK ACTION
ALERT
NRDC's California Activist
Network was formed to mobilize
and provide action tools
to Californians and others
concerned with protecting the
state's extraordinary wealth
of natural treasures and
the health of its citizens.
May
1, 2001
========================================
In This Issue:
--Action alerts--
1. Speak out to fix the state's groundwater contamination
monitoring system
2. Keep up the pressure to create Channel Islands ocean
reserves
3.
Urge Interior secretary Gale Norton to uphold protections
for California's national monuments
--Special Announcements--
1. Do you fish for rockfish? If so,
NRDC needs your help
2. San Franciscans: Breast cancer
and the environment --
town meeting on 5/12
--Updates on Previous alerts--
1. Energy efficiency legislation
2. Alternative-fuel school buses
======================================================
You will also find these alerts in NRDC'S Earth Action
Center, which includes tools for taking action easily
online, at http://www.nrdc.org/action
(Please do not reply to this message; see the instructions
below for how to unsubscribe or contact NRDC with
questions
or comments.)
=============
Action alerts
=============
1. Speak out to fix the state's groundwater contamination
monitoring system
California's groundwater is a source of drinking water for
half the state's population -- 16 million people --
while
the state's massive agricultural system also
depends on
groundwater for irrigation. In fact, each day
California
extracts an average of *14.5 billion gallons*
of groundwater
-- far more than any other state -- to
help meet its water
needs.
But the state's system for monitoring and managing
groundwater contamination is badly in need of improvement.
Although different studies have found contaminants such
as
arsenic, pesticides and nitrates at levels that
exceed
federal or state health standards, the State
Water Resources
Control Board -- the agency most
responsible for monitoring
the state's groundwater
supplies -- admits its own report is
neither reliable
nor current (the report's data hasn't been
updated since
1992). To make matters worse, the seven state
and
federal agencies that share responsibility for different
aspects of groundwater supplies have no effective system of
coordinating and communicating with each other.
The Groundwater Monitoring Act of
2001 (AB 599) is designed
to correct these problems by
designating a single agency to
collect and coordinate
data from all the various sources.
The bill also calls
for additional groundwater monitoring
and adding
standards for significant contaminants that
currently
are not evaluated.
== What to do
==
Send a message to Assembly Appropriations Committee
chair
Carole Migden, urging her to help ensure
expeditious passage
of this much needed legislation.
== Contact information ==
You can send a message to Assemblymember Migden directly
from NRDC's Earth Action Center at
http://www.nrdc.org/action. Or use the contact
information
and sample letter below to send your own
message, and please
include your own reasons why having
a reliable system for
monitoring the state's groundwater
contamination is
important to you.
Assemblymember Carole Migden
2114 State Capitol
Sacramento,
CA 94249-0001
Phone: 916-319-2013
Fax: 916-319-2113
Email: assemblymember.migden@assembly.ca.gov
== For background ==
California's Contaminated Groundwater
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/caground.asp
== Sample letter ==
Subject: Support and pass
AB 599
Dear Assemblymember
Migden,
I urge you and the rest
of the Appropriations Committee to
pass AB 599, the
Groundwater Monitoring Act of 2001.
California's groundwater is one of our state's most valuable
natural resources, allowing us to produce the country's
highest agricultural yield and sustain the country's
largest
state population. I am, therefore, distressed to
learn of
both the lack of current or complete data
concerning
groundwater contamination and the absence of
a coordinated
system for managing this data.
Without proper information on water
quality and the water
contaminants themselves, we cannot
begin to protect this
essential resource. AB 599 calls
for data coordination among
agencies currently
monitoring groundwater, additional
monitoring, and
adding standards for significant
contaminants that
currently are not evaluated.
Please assure speedy passage and implementation of this
important bill.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
2. Keep up the pressure to create Channel Islands ocean
reserves
In
July 2000 we asked you to write the Channel Islands
Marine Reserves Working Group and urge the agency to create
a network of marine reserves in the Channel Islands
National
Marine Sanctuary that would protect and
preserve
California's ocean waters and marine life.
Since then, the
working group has struggled to develop
and agree on a map of
reserves, but opponents have
blocked those efforts and
lobbied to defeat any reserve
plan. So now, despite two
years of effort, tremendous
input from scientists and
economists, and support from a
wide range of community
members, reserves run the risk
of being defeated by some of
the people who stand to
gain the most from them -- people
who fish the Channel
Islands.
Next month the
California Fish and Game Commission will
decide the fate
of the waters out to three miles around the
islands, so
now is the time to show our support for
increasing
protections for this ocean wilderness.
== What to do ==
Contact the
California Fish and Game Commission and insist
that it
implement a network of marine reserves that meets
scientific recommendations to protect and preserve
California's ocean waters and marine life.
== Contact information ==
You can email the executive director of the Fish and Game
Commission directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at
http://www.nrdc.org/action. Or use the contact
information
and sample letter below to send your own
message.
Robert Treanor,
Executive Director
California Fish and Game Commission
1416 9th Street, Room 1320
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-653-5040
Email: rtreanor@dfg.ca.gov
== For background ==
Keeping Oceans Wild
http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/mpa.asp
== Sample letter ==
Subject: Create marine
reserves around the Channel Islands
Dear Mr. Treanor,
The Channel Islands' unique ocean ecosystem is one of
California's greatest natural treasures, but it is suffering
from overfishing. Over the past two years, the Channel
Islands Marine Reserve Working Group has worked to
develop a
recommendation for creating reserves around
the islands.
This process involved local stakeholders
and residents,
opportunity for public comment, and
consideration of both
the ecology and the economics of
the region.
All around the world
marine reserves have shown that once
declining habitats
and fish are fully protected, they
recover and thrive.
The Fish and Game Commission has the
opportunity now to
take historic steps by fully protecting
some of the
waters around the Channel Islands, but unless
reserves
are sited based on scientific evidence, they may
not
provide ecological benefits. According to the science
panel, a successful network of reserves will need some of
each kind of habitat in the islands, including the kelp
forests along the shore and the deeper waters where
rockfish
live.
Please take this opportunity to make the Channel Islands a
true sanctuary for marine wildlife by creating reserves
that
will safeguard the islands before the end of this
year.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
3. Urge Interior secretary Gale
Norton to uphold protections
for California's national
monuments
In our last alert, we
asked you to contact Governor Davis
and urge him to
defend two new national monuments in
California: the
California Coastal National Monument and
Carrizo Plain
National Monument. These monuments, as well as
the
expanded Pinnacles National Monument in California and
other new monuments around the country, are in grave danger
of losing their current protections. Secretary of the
Interior Gale Norton, ignoring extensive national
support
for the monuments, has asked elected officials
to recommend
changes to their protected status.
The islands, rocks, exposed reefs
and pinnacles that
comprise the California Coastal
National Monument provide
crucial habitat for otters,
seabirds and many other species.
Carrizo Plain National
Monument, in central California,
includes important
archeological and historic resources such
as Native
American rock art dating back thousands of years,
and is
home to 13 threatened or endangered plant and animal
species. And the expanded Pinnacles National Monument
encompasses 24,000 acres of dramatic spires, sheer-walled
canyons, and spectacular vistas that make the area a
popular
destination for hikers and mountain
climbers.
== What to
do ==
Send a message to Interior secretary Norton,
urging her to
uphold the public's wishes by maintaining
current
protections for California's new national
monuments.
== Contact
information ==
You can email Secretary Norton directly
from NRDC's Earth
Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action (the letter
there urges Secretary Norton to uphold all new national
monuments, not just those in California, so feel free to cut
and paste from the text below to make the message more
state-specific). Or use the contact information and
sample
letter below to send your own message, and please
include
your own reasons why protecting these unique
places is
important to you.
Secretary Gale A. Norton
U.S.
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-3100
Email: gale_norton@ios.doi.gov
== Sample letter ==
Subject: Protect
California's treasured national monuments
Dear Secretary Norton,
I understand you have requested elected officials' comments
on newly designated California national monuments and
others
across the country. These monuments safeguard
significant
parts of our country's unique natural
heritage, and I
strongly urge you heed the public's
wishes and maintain
current protections for them.
The California Coastal Monument and
Carrizo Plain National
Monument protect crucial habitat
for a variety of threatened
and endangered plant and
wildlife species. Pinnacles
National Monument safeguards
the dramatic geological
formations and abundance of
wildlife within its expanse.
Their status as national
monuments ensures that these
singular places and their
resources will be protected from
the mounting threats
posed by commercial development and
urban sprawl.
The public was extensively involved
in establishing these
new monuments and continues to
overwhelmingly support their
designations. Please
maintain current protections for these
treasures.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
=====================
Special Announcements
=====================
1. Do you fish for rockfish? If so, will you help us protect
them?
Pacific rockfish are an important economic and environmental
resource, but for years fishers have been harvesting
rockfish faster than the fish can replace themselves. The
result has been a dramatic decline in rockfish
populations
off the coast of California, Oregon and
Washington. One
species, bocaccio rockfish, has declined
by 98 percent.
To protect
rockfish and rockfish habitat, NRDC recently
filed a
series of lawsuits demanding that the National
Marine
Fisheries Service protect overfished rockfish species
and open up its decisionmaking process to the public. If you
are an NRDC member and you fish for rockfish (or have
fished
them in the past) and would be willing to sign a
statement
to that effect, we need to hear from you as
quickly as
possible. Please send an email with your
contact information
to Jennifer Anker at
janker@nrdc.org. Thanks!
2.
Breast cancer and the environment: a town meeting for
breast cancer activists
"No More Silent Spring: Speaking Out About Breast Cancer and
the Environment" is a town meeting featuring biologist
and
author Dr. Sandra Steingraber, and emceed by
author/activist
Anne Lamott. Workshops will include
"Stopping Cancer Where
it Starts," "Environmental
Justice: Who is Being Heard?" and
"Medical Radiation:
What Can be Done?"
== When and
where ==
Saturday, May 12
1pm -
5pm
First Unitarian Universalist Center
1187 Franklin Street
San Francisco
Tickets
($10): 415-392-4400
More
information: 415-243-9301
==========================
Updates
on Previous alerts
==========================
1. Energy efficiency legislation
In last month's alert, we asked you
to help encourage
bipartisan support for crucial energy
efficiency bills in
the state legislature. Your messages
got through loud and
clear -- just days after we posted
our alert, the Assembly
and Senate passed their
respective versions of the bill
(ABX1 29 and SBX1 5) and
on April 11, Governor Davis signed
them into law. This
legislation will provide $733.5 million
for urgently
needed energy efficiency, renewable energy and
low
income services programs, which will help relieve some
of the stress on the electric grid and consumers this
summer. In the coming months, NRDC will work with state
agencies, electric utilities and local communities to ensure
that these programs are implemented effectively;
meanwhile,
thanks to everyone who urged the legislature
to take this
critical step.
2. Alternative-fuel school buses
In March we asked you to contact members of the South Coast
Air Quality Management District board and urge them to
adopt
a rule requiring the region's 140 school districts
to buy
only natural gas and other cleaner
alternative-fuel school
buses, and not dirty diesel
buses, for their kids. Thanks to
an outpouring of public
support combined with an intensive
campaign by the
environmental and public health communities,
the board
adopted the "alternative-fuel only" rule at their
April
20 meeting. The board also earmarked more than $16
million to purchase clean-fuel buses for the region (our
future efforts will include ensuring even more funding for
these purchases). We hope that this historic development
will spur other school districts around the nation to
start
buying alternative-fuel buses. In the meantime,
THANK YOU to
everyone who helped secure this major
victory for the
region's schoolkids and environment.
==================================================
About Our Bulletins/How to Subscribe & Unsubscribe
==================================================
NRDC distributes three bulletins by
email. To subscribe to
any or all of them or to join our
activist networks, go to:
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ACTION ALERT is distributed
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Californians and others concerned
with protecting the
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Network Action Alert, send an email message to
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EARTH
ACTION is sent biweekly and calls out urgent
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LEGISLATIVE WATCH is sent biweekly when Congress is in
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with REMOVE
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==========
About NRDC
==========
The Natural Resources Defense
Council is a nonprofit
environmental organization with
over 400,000 members
nationwide and a staff of
scientists, attorneys and
environmental experts. Our
mission is to protect the
planet's wildlife and wild
places and ensure a safe and
healthy environment for all
living things.
For more
information about NRDC or how to become a member of
NRDC, please contact us at:
Natural Resources Defense Council
40
West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax)
General email: nrdcinfo@nrdc.org
California Activist Network email: wildcalifornia@nrdc.org
http://www.nrdc.org
Also visit:
BioGems -- Saving
Endangered Wild Places
A project of the Natural
Resources Defense Council
http://www.savebiogems.org
from Environmental Defense May 1, 2001
You can take action on this alert either via email
(please see directions below) or via the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A20768B0501122947C172
Visit the web address below and
tell your friends to
take action on this important
campaign!
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/mercury2/forward?rk=61qUq8d14d17W
We encourage you to take action
by October 31, 2001
A Call for
Automakers to Switch Out Mercury Switches
with Dealers
----------------------
Switch the Switch
----------------------
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action
on this alert by going to the following URL:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A20768B0501122947C172
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA
EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your
email
program, and edit the letter below as you wish. Do
not delete "-YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER BELOW-" and "-END
OF LETTER-". Please do not add your name and address
to your letter. Our system automatically does this
for you.
We STRONGLY encourage you to make edits directly to
our sample letter below, and put the alert talking
points into your own words. An individualized letter
is worth ten computer generated letters. Of course,
hundreds of unedited letters will still create a large
impact, so please reply even if you don't have time
to personalize the letter.
Your letter will be addressed and sent to:
Mr. Dana Gregory Dana
-------YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER
BELOW---------
I urge automakers
to establish an exchange program
that removes
convenience-lighting mercury switches
from the vehicles
currently on the road, and replaces
them with
mercury-free alternatives. Such an exchange
program
could be conveniently established at automobile
dealerships. I support proactive initiatives such as
this that show an industry's stewardship for their
products, the environment, and public health.
Mercury has a tremendous impact
on our environment
and on our health, particularly our
children's health.
Mercury can affect a child's
attention span and memory,
and even cause serious brain
damage. Recent studies
by the National Academy of
Sciences and the Center
for Disease Control clearly show
the irreversible impacts
mercury has on our health.
Mercury is so toxic that
one gram -- about the amount
used in one automotive
switch -- can contaminate all the
fish in a small lake
so people are advised not to eat
them.
Please, help us all
protect the health of our nation's
children. With the
cooperation of auto dealerships,
remove and recycle
mercury switches from the vehicle
currently on the
road.
-------END OF
LETTER-------------------------
from Michael Moore May 1, 2001
Why Don't We All Just Cut the Crap Right Now
May 1, 2001
Dear friends,
Well, 101 days into the Junta and
the fear mongers are having a heyday,
aren't
they? Even good liberals and Democrats have joined in the mantra.
To listen to them, you'd think George W. Bush had opened the
gates of hell
and unleashed the legions of Satan upon
the American people.
These good
people actually believe Junior has put the arsenic back in the
water, given the go-ahead to spew massive CO2 emissions into
the air, torn
up our national forests, and raped the
Alaskan wilderness. With all the
fury that has been
whipped up, I'm sure any minute we'll also hear that
Baby Face Bush recently held up a 7-11 in Denver, and now
plans to release
bubonic plague into the atmosphere over
Ohio.
Now, don't get me wrong.
There's no doubt that this illegal squatter in the
Oval
Office is not to be trusted farther than you can throw Katherine
Harris. But, please, let's cut the crap and tell
the truth: George W. Bush
has done little more than
CONTINUE the policies of the last eight years of
the
Clinton/Gore administration. As hard as that is for many to swallow,
that is the truth -- and the sooner you stop the scare
campaign, the sooner
we'll be able to fight Bush in a
way that will stop him for good.
For eight long years, Clinton/Gore resisted all efforts and
recommendations
to reduce the carbon dioxide in the air
and the arsenic in the water. Just
last October, Senate
Democratic leader Tom Daschle and sixteen other
Democrats successfully led the way to STOP any reduction of
arsenic in the
water. Why? Because Clinton
and the Democrats were beholden to the very
industries
who had financed their campaigns --- and who were responsible
for high levels of arsenic in the water.
On top of that, Clinton/Gore became
the first administration in twenty
years NOT to demand
higher fuel efficiency standards from Detroit. Millions
of barrels of oil that did not need to be refined and spewed
out into our
air were guzzled unnecessarily. It wasn't
that way under Reagan. His
administration ordered that
cars had to get more miles per gallon. Under
Bush I, the
standards were made even stricter. Under Clinton -- zip.
Nothing. How many more people will die from cancer, how much
faster will
global warming be sped up thanks to Bill and
Al being in cahoots with one
of their chief patrons, the
top lobbyist for the Big 3 auto companies --
Mr. Andrew
Card, currently the chief of staff for the man occupying the
federal land at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Am I
the only one who remembers
one of the most lavish
inaugural parties thrown for Clinton after his
election?
The host: General Motors and its man-about-town in DC, Andrew Card.
Yes, there is a difference between
the Democrats and the Republicans. The
Democrats say one
thing ("Save the planet!"), and then do another, quietly
and behind the scenes with all the bastards who make this
world a dirtier
place. The Republicans just come right
out and give the bastards a corner
office in the West
Wing. In some ways, maybe it's better we see the evil
out in the open rather than covered up in a liberal sheep's
clothing that
seems to fool a lot of people.
Bill Clinton waited until the final
days of his presidency to suddenly sign
a number of
presidential decrees and regulations to improve our environment
and create safer working conditions. It was the ultimate
cynical move. Wait
'til the last 48 hours of your term
to finally do the right thing so that
your "legacy" will
be improved. Every one of these regulations Bush has
"overturned" was signed by Clinton in December and January.
And that's ALL
he did -- sign worthless pieces of paper.
Do you believe Clinton removed
the arsenic from the water? Not only did he
NOT do that,
not only did he make us drink arsenic-laced water for the last
8 years, this order he signed stipulated that the arsenic
was not to be
removed from the water "until 2004."
That's right. Look it up. Clinton's
big environmental
do-good act in the last minutes of his term guaranteed
that we would be drinking the same levels of arsenic we've
been drinking
since 1942 -- the last time a
REAL Democrat had the guts to stand up to
the mining
interests and reduce the levels of this poison. The Canadians
and Europeans did it long ago. Clinton made it official that
we would all
be drinking arsenic during the entire Bush
administration. Maybe he was
doing us a favor.
And how about those COO emission
regulations that Bush II overturned? Did I
say
"overturn?" Overturn what? All Bush did was maintain the Clinton status
quo. He said, in essence, that "I'm going to pollute the air
at the very
same levels Clinton did during his entire
eight years, just as you are
going to drink the same
arsenic in the water under my watch as you did
under
Clinton's."
And, like the
built-in three-year delay in his arsenic reductions,
Clinton's orders on the toxic emissions in his last days
specified that
they were not to be totally reduced
'"until 2008, per the Kyoto agreement."
So, after
violating the Kyoto accords he had signed by doing NOTHING about
CO2 in the past few years, he then tries to look good by
doing NOTHING
about CO2 for another seven years! So the
air that was dirty is still dirty
and will remain dirty,
just as Clinton had ordered.
The
list goes on and on. For eight years Clinton did NOTHING about carpal
tunnel syndrome as it relates to OSHA regulations. Then, in
the middle of
pardoning some rich guys during his
all-night kegger on January 19, he
decides to finally do
some good for all those women who sit at keyboards
all
day and who, with their crippled hands, went to the polls TWICE to make
him their President.
Friends, you are being misled and hoodwinked by a bunch of
professional
"liberals" who did NOTHING themselves for
eight years to clean up these
messes -- and now all they
can do is attack people like Ralph Nader who has
devoted
his ENTIRE life to every single one of these issues. What
unmitigated gall! They blame Nader for giving us Bush? I
blame THEM for
being Bush! They suck off the same
corporate teat and they support stuff
like NAFTA which,
according to the Sierra Club, has DOUBLED the pollution
along the Mexican border where the American factories have
moved. And then
they wring their hands over Bush and his
"reversals!" Where is Orwell when
we need
him? How much slicker can the doublespeak get?
Had Clinton done the job those of us who voted for him in
1992 expected him
to do, we wouldn't be in the pickle
we're in. Imagine if on his first day
in office over
eight years ago Clinton had ordered a reduction of the
arsenic in the drinking water -- and all of America had been
drinking
cleaner, safer water for the last eight years.
Do you think there is any
way in hell this Junior Bush
would have been able to say, "OK, America,
you've been
drinking water without poison in it long enough. Time to go
back to the good old days of sucking down that ol'
arsenic!"? Hell no! The
public -- no one -- would have
stood for it. And he'd know that. He
wouldn't even have
tried it. But because Clinton waited to the last minute
and never removed any of this crud from the water or the
air, there was no
political or popular support base for
the decision. So it was easy for Bush
to do what he did.
He figured, you're not going to miss what you never had
removed in the first place.
Finally, a word about that order Bush issued to ban money
for abortions
overseas. Wrong again. Pro-choice Clinton,
like the three presidents before
him, had already signed
an order banning any American funds to pay for
abortions
in foreign countries. What Bush did was to expand the order to
include cutting off any monies to foreign birth control
groups that offer
abortion as an alternative. Worse, yes
-- but he only got away with it
because our Democratic
president had laid the groundwork in continuing the
abortion-funds cut-off, placing his "liberal" approval on a
piece of the
right-wing agenda. If you give the devil a
bone, he doesn't just go away --
he wants the whole damn
leg.
So spare me all the hand
wringing and indignant moralizing. Those who want
to
turn Bush into some sort of cartoon monster have an agenda -- to keep
most of us from seeing the beast that they themselves have
become. Of
course they hate Ralph Nader. He's an ugly
reminder that they sold out a
long time ago -- and he
didn't. Blame Nader, blame Bush, it's all part of
the
same distraction, to keep you from focusing on this one, very important
fact: Republican arsenic or Democratic arsenic,
it really is the same damn
crap being forced down your
throat.
I am committed to
changing that, either within or without the Democratic Party.
Please feel free to pass this letter
on to anyone you know who believes
that Bush
"overturned" what Clinton did. Thanks.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
P.S. Well, a miracle of
sorts happened in Texas a few weeks back. Michael
Moore,
the inmate on death row, got a last-minute reprieve! This never
happens in that kill-happy state. Thanks to all of you who
wrote a letter
to the Texan officials. His fate is now
up in the air.
A bill is also
pending in the Texas legislature calling for a moratorium on
executions -- and, surprisingly, it is receiving a lot of
support. I'll
keep you informed of its progress, and in
the meantime, please write to the
Texas House and Senate
and demand its passage.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma will execute a woman later today who was
convicted, in
part, on the testimony of a police
forensic expert who has just been found
to have falsely
supplied evidence in at least a half-dozen death row cases
-- including this woman's. Some of those who were the
victims of this
forensic "expert" have already been put
to death. It now appears they may
have been innocent.
Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 Oklahomans. Today, the
people of Oklahoma and its governor will murder one
more.
from Alaska Wildlife Alliance May 1, 2001
URGENT ACTION
ALERT! Please send your comments to the Board of Game today!!
We have just learned that
for a starting bid of $1,000 you can hunt the most
viewed wolves in the world by snowmobile. "The
hunt is valued at
$3,500...take up to 5 wolves on this
trip!!" says the ad on eBay, an
Internet auction
site. An Alaskan trapper, and guide, is donating the hunt
as a fundraiser for the California-based hunting "Kamp for
Kids".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Already, over 11,000 citizens have added their names
to an online petition protesting
the
hunt. For more information on Denali's wolves, this hunt, and how you
can sign the petition, visit http://www.akwildlife.org/campaigns .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On May 20-21 the Alaska Board
of Game has scheduled a special hearing to
reconsider a
proposal to establish a buffer zone on state land around Denali
National Park to protect the Toklat and Sanctuary
wolves. Please ask the
Board of Game to stop
the trapping and hunting of these wolves on state
lands. Send comments to:
BOG Comments
Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Boards Support Section
P.O. Box
25526
Juneau, AK 99802-5526
Fax:
907-465-6094
Email: margaret_edens@fishgame.state.ak.us
Public
Comment Information: To have your comments included in the Board of
Game workbook issued prior to the meeting, please submit
them by no later
than May 11th. Otherwise,
comments received BEFORE May 20th will be
provided to
the Game Board members at the time of the meeting. Be sure to
include your full name & address on ALL correspondence.
GOOD NEWS! A member
of our staff was up at Denali National Park this past
weekend. She was able to watch - for over 2 hours
- eight of the ten Toklat
wolves as they lay in the sun
on a snowy hillside within viewing distance of
the
Denali Park road. They all appeared well, and will hopefully raise
pups
this summer!
Thank you.
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance
Letting
Nature Run Wild
P.O. Box 202022
Anchorage, AK 99520
(907)
277-0897
(907) 277-7423
mailto:awa@alaska.net
http://www.akwildlife.org/
from Alaka Rainforest Campaign May 1, 2001
National Public Radio. s- Living on Earth to Feature Alaska.
s Tongass
Living on Earth is the
weekly environmental news and information program aired by 230 National Public
Radio stations throughout the country. For the next two weeks (the
weeks of May 4 & May11) the show will run two twenty minutes pieces
highlighting the crown jewel of the national forest system-the Tongass. Tune in
to the first week. s show to get a glimpse of the natural history of the
Tongass, including a look at the wildlife and people who live in America. s
largest national forest. The second week. s show will focus on the
roadless rule and the controversy surrounding the Tongass. The Tongass was
originally exempt from immediate protection during the draft phases of the plan,
but because of huge public support, was eventually included in the final
rule. Now the Bush Administration is looking at repealing the rule,
leaving Alaska. s Tongass vulnerable to continued industrial scale clearcutting
and road construction. Tune in to find out more.
Show dates and times vary according to your local
station. For a complete list of NPR stations that air the show visit
the Living on Earth website at http://www.loe.org/where/where.htm or call your local
NPR station.
To speak with
someone directly please e-mail info@akrain.org or call 907-747-8292.
Thanks for your support.
Alaska Rainforest Campaign
Staff.
from Environmental Defense May 1, 2001
***************************
Action Network from Environmental Defense.
Finding the ways that work. Funded by members like
you.
***************************
CHENEY SAYS YES TO DIGGING FOR OIL
IN THE ARCTIC
As you probably heard in
today's news headlines, Vice
President Dick Cheney gave
a speech yesterday reaffirming
the Bush Administration's
continued efforts to open
up the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to
oil drilling.
YOU HAVE SAID -- NO DRILLING!
You have already made your opposition to drilling in
the Arctic Refuge heard. By joining people across the
country who took action online, Environmental Defense's
Action Network generated over 20,000 personal messages
to Congress urging protection of the Arctic Refuge
as wilderness before the Bush Administration gives
it away to oil companies. Thank you for your tremendous
support!
THERE'S MORE YOU CAN
DO TODAY
Tell your friends now to
join us in making this critical
appeal. Spread the word
today about the fight to save
the Arctic Refuge from oil
drilling. Visit:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/CpqUq8d1Npzt/foward
Together, we can help stop the drilling.
THE VP IS NOT FINISHED
Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is
expected to be the centerpiece of recommendations by
the President's Energy Task Force, expected later in
May. The Vice President's remarks demonstrate that
despite strong public opposition to oil drilling in
the Arctic Refuge, the Bush Administration will put
oil companies ahead of polar bears, caribou, migratory
birds, and strong environmental protection.
PLEASE HELP TODAY. Visit: http://actionnetwork.org/ct/CpqUq8d1Npzt/foward
from Global Response May 2, 2001
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network:"
I'm forwarding this very
disturbing news re human rights abuses by logging
companies in Papua New Guinea (for background, see Global
Response Action
#1/01 at http://www.globalresponse.org/gra_index/gra0101.html). Please
go
to the Forests.org website (given in text below) and
send a quick email
message to denounce these abuses and
uphold the moratorium on new industrial
logging
concessions. Thanks for your continued concern and action on this
very alarming situation. -- Paula Palmer
***********************************************
FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY
Papua
New Guinea: Loggers Accused of Corruption and Rape
***********************************************
Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Portal
http://forests.org/links/ -- Forest
Conservation Links
05/02/01
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org
A startling new documentary alleges widespread human rights
violations, fraud, incompetence and corruption by
transnational
loggers operating in Papua New Guinea -
which contains the third
largest rainforest expanses on
the Planet. In explosive claims an
investigation by SBS Television in Australia alleges that
some
loggers are regularly raping local women at the
barrel of a gun.
Landowners are being forced to sign
legal documents, also at
gunpoint. The
program states that police have become private law
enforcers for logging companies and are on their
payrolls. The SBS
Dateline program alleges
that foreign loggers "are a law unto
themselves".
In the late 1980s, the Barnett
Inquiry, which exhaustively
investigated the PNG timber
industry, reported "It would be fair to
say, of some of
the companies, that they are now roaming the
countryside
with the self-assurance of robber barons; bribing
politicians and leaders, creating social disharmony and
ignoring laws
in order to gain access to, rip out, and
export the last remnants of
the province's valuable
timber." After millions of dollars of failed
donor aid programs and countless broken promises to pursue
reform,
NOTHING HAS CHANGED. IN FACT, IT HAS
GOTTEN WORSE.
There has been a
complete breakdown in forest sector management in
Papua
New Guinea. It is absolutely incumbent upon the World Bank and
Australia, as well as other donor participants in the
structural
adjustment loans, to insist that the Papua
New Guinea government
maintain the moratorium on new
logging as a condition for further
loan
disbursements. This was the agreement under which the loan was
originally granted. Given the severity of
findings emerging from the
review of timber operations,
and found within the SBS documentary,
donor failure to
demand maintenance of the moratorium would be
shockingly
irresponsible.
To let the PNG
government off the hook, releasing a flood of some 30
ill-conceived new logging ventures into most of PNG's
remaining
rainforests, would assign to donors a degree
of complicity in the
rape of PNG's rainforests and
mothers.
DEMAND THAT THE
MORATORIUM ON NEW RAINFOREST LOGGING BE MAINTAINED
AT: http://forests.org/emailaction/png.htm . The
alert has been
updated to reflect the new developments.
g.b.
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: SBS accuses loggers of corruption
Source: Copyright 2001 AAP, in the National (PNG)
Date: May 2, 2001
Byline: KEVIN RICKETTS
NEW claims have emerged of fraud,
incompetence and corruption in
rainforest logging
concession areas in Western province.
A new documentary by SBS Television's Dateline program will
also
outline allegations that loggers in one area of the
province have
raped local women.
The PNG Forest Industries
Association and the National Forests Board
responded to
the allegations by accusing the World Wildlife
Federation (WWF), the Eco-Forestry Forum and other
non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) of being 'puppets'
of foreign countries, bent on
securing more funding from
the World Bank.
Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister for Forests Michael Ogio has also
rejected suggestions that he favoured a Malaysian logging
company
with tax exemptions worth millions of kina.
Tonight's Dateline documentary will
allege bribery and corruption of
government ministers
and bureaucrats by logging companies, the
recruitment by
those companies of PNG police as private law enforcers
and of local women being forced into sex at the barrel of a
gun.
On April 10, a World Bank
independent review team charged with
clearing up
corruption in the forest industry reported that the PNG
Forest Authority was "incompetent at almost every level of
the forest
management process".
The review team said that the
authority had "grossly overstated" the
extent of forest
resources, had proved incapable of responding to or
investigating complaints on current logging operations, had
not
attempted to protect conservation areas or fragile
forests, had
ignored statutory requirements and was
interested only in supporting
log exports.
The team found 11 of the 32 forest
management agreements (FMAs)
prepared for allocation --
covering 1.4 million hectares -- should
probably not be
progressed any further because they were 'illegal".
However, Chief Secretary Robert Igara said that the draft
reports
produced by the review team in fact largely
commend the PNG Forest
Authority and its officers on
their sound and professional
performance of their
duties.
Speaking in his role as
chairman of the Forest Review Committee
overseeing a PNG
Government review of proposed forest projects, Mr
Igara
said that the floodgate of poorly planned forestry projects,
which prevailed until 1992, was largely closed.
He noted that his review team also
investigated the 32 proposed
projects and the reason why
these proposals were still only in the
pipeline was
largely because most of these projects either do not
comply with the Forestry Act, and associated requirements,
or require
considerable further preparatory work before
they are ready to be
approved.
The SBS Dateline program alleges
that foreign loggers "are a law unto
themselves" in
their logging concession areas and that a succession
of
cash-strapped PNG governments have "sold off whatever natural
resources could be sold".
Dateline alleges that Minister Ogio has a special
relationship with
one foreign logging company, illegally
granting it new areas to log,
along with huge tax
concessions.
It quotes Port
Moresby lawyer Annie Kajir, who tells of allegations
that in the Bamu River area of Western province landowners
are forced
to sign papers with a barrel of a gun at
their back.
"Yes, in the
presence of police and company officials, without proper
legal advice, with guns pointed to them -- we have
statements from
these people," Ms Kajir says.
A police officer named as Galeva Sep
has told the program that police
are recruited by
logging companies to act only in the loggers'
interests
and that one man was locked in a shipping container for
three days.
Dateline alleges that trade union officials "have taken
dozens of
statements from women and girls who say
they're routinely threatened
with guns and that shots
are fired to scare them into having sex".
Forewarned of the Dateline allegations, the PNG Forest
Industries
Association rejected claims of wholesale
rainforest destruction in
PNG, saying: "The major cause
of deforestation in PNG, as elsewhere
in the tropics, is
due to forest conversion for agricultural pursuits
or
due to fire."
It said SBS'
allegations of police misconduct "are just allegations".
In its four-page reply to "Dateline", the Association asked:
"Is the
real problem ... that the World Bank and its NGO
partners cannot
accept that they are not the real
custodians of PNG's forests in PNG
eyes?"
###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###
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For
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********************************
Paula Palmer, Executive Director
Global Response
PO Box 7490
Boulder CO 80306
Tel. 303-444-0306
Fax. 303-449-9794
Website:
www.globalresponse.org
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