Supporting Green Peace - Ban on illegal timber

Hi there,

Over the past few years, we've done plenty of work to highlight the problem of illegally logged timber which is on sale in this country. At the moment, there are no laws to prevent this timber - which has been illegally harvested in places like the Amazon or south-east Asia - being imported and sold as things like plywood and garden furniture.

But, after years of lobbying by us and other organisations, legislation has been finally been proposed in Europe to put an end to this, and we're expecting the European Commission to put it to the vote in September.

Write to José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, and make sure he supports this legislation.

Huge amounts of illegally logged timber are bought and sold in the UK and Europe each year. In the past, we've shown how our government has been unable to keep its promise to use only timber from legal and sustainable sources in its own building projects including the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and the Houses of Parliament. If the government can't even get it right, then tough laws are the only answer.

After the amazing success we achieved recently with Dove and Unilever, I'm asking for your help again. José Manuel Barroso, president of the commission, is being lobbied by companies that profit from illegal timber to reject this legislation so he needs to be aware that protecting forests and the climate must come first.

We're asking all our supporters across Europe to write to Mr Barroso, asking him to ensure a 'yes' vote - please join the thousands of people who have already done so.

Thanks for your support,

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/forests/eu-ban-illegal...

Jamie Woolley
31 July 2008