For Sale: Chiles Endangered Forests
and Northwest Ancient Forests
March 21, 2002
WHAT: Premier Chilean Lawyer Travels to Local Wood
Supplier to Demand an End to the Destruction of Chiles Forests by
Multinational American Corporations.
WHO: Cascadia Forest Alliance, Miguel Fredes from
Southern Environmental Law Center (Chile), ForestEthics, Bark, and The
Gifford-Pinchot Task Force.
WHERE: BMC West, 20285 SW Cipole Road, Sherwood,
OR 97140
WHEN: Monday, March 11, 2002 at Noon
WHY: At the same time that the US is logging the
last of its own native forests, it is also devastating the native forests
of other countries. In places like Chile, native forests are being destroyed
at a rate of 120,000 hectares/year, an area equal to three times the size
of the city of Portland each year.
BMC West is part of the U.S. wood distribution
network that feeds this forest destruction in Chile, as well as in the
Pacific Northwest. BMC West sells products derived from endangered forests,
from the ancient forests on Alaskas public land to the forests of
Chile, which are being mowed down to create mono-culture tree farms that
provide poor habitat for wildlife and require a create deal of toxic chemical
spraying to sustain.
Miguel Fredes, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental
Law Center in Chile, explains, Chiles native forests are becoming
what U.S. forests have already become: a green desert of tree
farms. U.S. companies have exported this model of forest destruction and
have become the #1 destination for the wood products feeding the green
deserts relentless expansion.
According to Sally Baker, of The Cascadia Forest
Alliance, After years of work on Mt. Hood Forest issues, Northwest
activist are now taking our demands to the marketplace, to places like
BMC, where informed citizens can protect both our forests and the forests
in places like Chile with their purchasing power.
Press Advisory Contacts:
Kim Marks,
ForestEthics
cell: 503
317-3305
Miguel Fredes
Centro Austral de Derecho Ambiental - C E A D A
[Southern Environmental Law Center]
Tel-Fax(56)(65)313969 (Puerto Montt)
Tel-Fax(56)(2)235-5802(Santiago)
www.ceada.org
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