Long Island, New York Village Votes to Spare Rainforests
11/11/98
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Title: Long Island, New York Village Votes to Spare Rainforests
Source: Rainforest Relief
Status: Distribute freely with proper credit to source
Date: 11/11/98
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOV. 11, 1998
MEDIA CONTACT:
Tim Keating, Rainforest Relief, 718/398-3760
LONG ISLAND VILLAGE VOTES TO SPARE RAINFORESTS
BOARDWALK PROJECT WILL USE TROPICAL WOODS FROM "CERTIFIED" PRODUCERS
GREENPORT, NY. In yet another major victory for the rainforests, the
Greenport Village Board voted Monday night to use only tropical wood from
independently certified operations for its Mitchell Park boardwalk
project.
Rainforest Relief, a Brooklyn, NY-based rainforest action group, and local
Greenport residents succeeded in convincing the village of Greenport not
to use uncertified rainforest woods for a boardwalk/pier complex in the
Village's Mitchell Park.
"We're relieved and gratified," said Tim Keating, Executive Director of
Rainforest Relief. "Three months of work has paid off and the rainforests
can breathe easier."
The Mitchell Park project involves a boardwalk along the waterfront, and,
in later phases, bulkheads and piers, as well as the creation of new
waterfront businesses. The first phase, which went out to bid last month,
involves part of the boardwalk and a gazebo, which will use approximately
20,000 board feet of wood. All phases of the project will use around
400,000 board feet. Due to the sporadic nature of the targeted wood
species, the inefficiencies of the logging and milling, and the demand for
extremely long pieces of clear wood, Rainforest Relief's figures revealed
that this would necessitate the high-grading of almost 45,000 acres of
tropical forests.
The design firm of Sharples Holden Pasquarelli designed the boardwalks and
parts of the gazebo with ipe (pronounced eepAYee), a tropical rainforest
hardwood from the Brazilian Amazon. Ipe has become popular for such
applications since companies began selling the hardwood in the 1960s to
the New York City Parks Department, which uses it for all its municipal
boardwalks including Coney Island.
Sharples, like other designers and architects, completely overlooked new
synthetic materials made from recyclables, such as recycled plastic
lumber, claiming those materials do not meet their aesthetic standards.
However, lost in the debate was the impact of logging on the wildlife,
people and forests of the Amazon, the world's largest and one of its most
threatened rainforest ecosystems. Eighty percent of logging in the
Brazilian Amazon is illegal. Logging there leads to the elimination of
forests as shifting cultivators and others use roads bulldozed by loggers
to gain access to new areas of forests for clearing.
After having been alerted to the proposed use of tropical hardwoods by a
local resident, Rainforest Relief, working with David Corwin, an engineer
and Greenport resident, proceeded to illuminate the Village Board as to
the realities of logging in the rainforests. Keating, an environmental
scientist, spoke to the Board about the destruction of rainforests,
highlighting the mass extinctions of species as they relate to illegal and
rapacious logging. The group's campaign included leafletting at the annual
Maritime Festival, an editorial in a local paper and postcards, hundreds
of which were sent or delivered to the Mayor's office.
The Board voted Monday night to use wood that carries independent
certification accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC
is an international body that accredits independent certifiers according
to a set of 10 strict environmental and social guidelines. Independent
certifiers oversee and inspect logging operations, awarding them
certificates based on their own set of guidelines. Certifiers become
accredited when their standards meet FSC guidelines and their
certification procedures are adhered to. Accreditation can be suspended at
any time.
"We would have preferred to see the Greenport waterfront returned to its
natural state," said Keating. "And while we would rather see demand
increase for recycled materials by using recycled plastic lumber for such
a project, the use of independently certified wood is the next best
thing."
While not a panacea, certified forestry is one way to slow the
deforestation of the Amazon. "Their are many forces at play that would
destroy the rainforest, said Keating, "Rapacious logging, export
agriculture, cattle ranching, oil extraction, gold mining, massive dams
for aluminum processing and other industries." Certified forests can
withstand some of these threats by providing a stream of income to local
people without completely clearing the forests. If done properly,
certified forestry is much more sustainable than almost all other
'development' alternatives.
"Ideally, forests would be left alone to flourish as they always have,"
said Keating, "But many forests are under the gun, on the frontline of
human expansion. Certified forestry can withstand the bulldozers of
illegal logging and the flames of clearing for cattle ranching and export
agriculture."
Rainforest Relief's main campaign is stopping New York City Parks
Department's continuing use of uncertified ipe. In August, Rainforest
Relief hung a 125' banner on the Coney Island Parachute Jump protesting
the agency's use of the wood for boardwalks, park benches and bridge
decking.
NYC Parks is North America's leading municipal user of woods logged from
tropical forests.
Rainforest Relief is a non-profit environmental organization working to
stop the destruction of the Earth's rainforests. Rainforest Relief works
to slow the demand for the products and materials produced from the
destruction or degradation of rainforests through eduction, advocacy and
non-violent direct action.
Addendum - Background on Rainforest Relief's Other Successful Campaigns
Rainforest Relief, the nation's lead organization working to prevent the
use of uncertified tropical rainforest woods, has had numerous successes
at preventing the use of these woods for boardwalks and decking as well as
other uses. The group, working with Friends of the Rainforest, an Ocean
City group, was successful at stopping the conversion of Ocean City, New
Jersey's 5 miles of boardwalks to tropical hardwoods. The town had already
begun the process, having used uncertified ipe for two block-long sections
of boardwalk renovations. After a 22-month campaign, the town voted to
reverse their engineers' recommendations and to no longer use the wood.
In Wildwood, NJ, Rainforest Relief and local residents were able to
prevent the conversion of that city's 5 miles of boardwalks to rainforest
wood which had been recommended by their engineers. And in Philadelphia,
RR convinced the Bridges Department to switch to a certified wood instead
of uncertified African hardwoods for the deck of the Strawberry Mansion
bridge.
In Long Beach, CA, working with Action Resource Center, Rainforest Relief
convinced the City to switch 25% of an order for uncertied ipe to
certified and to pass legislation barring any future use of uncertified
rainforest woods.
The group also stopped the use of mahogany and other rainforest hardwoods
by Barnes & Noble and Brinker International (Chili's Restaurants). Barnes
& Noble was using tropical rainforest woods for doors, foyers, furniture
and flooring in all their new stores, building about 100 new stores each
year. Brinker had been building all Chili's Restaurants with mahogany
doors.
These victories have prevented the use of hundreds of thousands of board
feet of rainforest hardwoods, sparing tens of thousands of acres of
tropical rainforests from highly damaging logging and the total
elimination that most often follows.
Rainforest Relief is currently working to stop the continuing use or sale
of uncertified tropical rainforest hardwoods by Hilton Hotels, Williams-
Sonoma, Coach (a clothing and leather goods chain), Hard Rock Cafe,
Scan/Design (a furniture retail chain in the Northwest), The Home Depot,
the world's leading retailer of tropical rainforest hardwoods, and New
York City Parks Department, North America's leading municipal user of
woods logged from tropical forests.