Activists Block Canadian Logging
7/8/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Subject: Activists block Canadian logging
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 1997
Organization: Copyright 1997 by United Press International
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 8 (UPI) -- A fact-finding mission
turned into an impromptu logging blockade for activists of six U.S. and
European environmental groups visiting Canada.
Fifteen environmentalists set up a one-day blockade on the remote
King Island on the central coast of British Columbia where International
Forest Products has logging operations.
After seeing a ``40-acre clearcut'' a blockade sprung up from
groups:
U.K.-based Reforest the Earth, Forest Action Network U.K., Germany's
Urgewald, German-based AKKU, Friends of the Earth of the Netherlands and
the U.S.-based Rainforest Action Network.
About 60 protesters from Greenpeace and the Nuxalk native nation
were arrested after a blockade last month at the same logging site.
Reforest the Earth spokeswoman Angie Zelter says, ``Britain is a
clearcut'' adding, ``We have no old-growth forests left. We want Canada
to learn from our mistakes.''
Forest Action Network spokesman Gavin Edwards says this visit is
just one of many for the groups over the coming weeks. He told United
Press International, ``They've heard a lot, particularly from the forest
industry ... trying to convince Europeans that everything's OK'' with
logging practices adding, ``They're here to see for themselves.''