Wednesday 4th June, 2003 - London. At 6am this morning Greenpeace volunteers occupied the construction site of the new Home Office HQ at 2 Marsham Street, Westminster (1) and declared it an ancient forest crime scene. Eleven Greenpeace climbers scaled and occupied four huge cranes on the site and hung banners saying 'Rainforest Demolition Site'.

This action follows a Greenpeace investigation, which documented Government contractors using illegal and destructively logged plywood from Indonesia's last remaining rainforests. The plywood - used for the site hoardings and to hold wet concrete in place while it sets - has been supplied by timber barons notorious for illegal logging, environmental
destruction, corruption and human rights abuses.

This directly contravenes commitments by both Prime Minister Tony Blair and Environment Minister Michael Meacher to only use timber from legal and sustainable sources on government projects, such as those independently certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) (2). Only last month, Meacher confirmed that 'Government procurement policy on timber applies to all wood and products made from wood used in performing government contracts. That includes the wood used temporarily during construction works as well as wood fixed as part of a finished structure'. (3)

The climbers will remain there until Tony Blair agrees to put his words into action: he must stop his Government buying timber from the trashing of Indonesia's rainforests and ensure full implementation of his Government's timber procurement policy. Greenpeace also calls on the Prime Minister to ban the import of illegal timber.

Greenpeace forest campaigner John Sauven said, 'Tony Blair has pledged time and again to only buy timber from 'legal and sustainable' sources. Our action today exposes his continued failure to turn words into deeds'.

'Trashing Indonesia's last rainforests to make throwaway plywood to shield government building projects is like smashing up Stonehenge to make rubble for road building. What sort of fate is this for the world's ancient forests?'

The action coincides with the launch of a new Greenpeace report, 'Partners in crime: a Greenpeace investigation of the links between the UK and Indonesia's timber barons', which traces the trade in illegally logged timber from Indonesia's rainforests to end users like the UK government and builders merchants like Jewson and Travis Perkins. The report reveals that approximately 88% of all wood from Indonesia's remaining
rainforests is set to come from illegal sources this year.

Indeed a recent assessment by the World Bank and WWF concluded that 'Probably no log in Indonesia is produced in a way that is not characterised by the breaking or manipulation of some regulation.'

Indonesia is suffering the highest rate of forest destruction in the world, which is driven by demand for cheap timber and paper products.

Many of Indonesia's unique species depend upon these forests for their survival and the country now has more species threatened with extinction than anywhere else on earth, including the orang-utan. The World Bank recently described Indonesia as facing 'a species extinction of planetary proportions' and estimated that if the current rate of forest
destruction continues, most of Indonesia's ancient forests will be logged out by 2010.

More/2...

The Vice President of the UK Timber Trade Federation admitted, in a recent letter to members that was leaked to Greenpeace, 'as many of you will know, Indonesian mills are not able to provide sufficient evidence of legality and sustainability for the UK market' (4). In January this
year Indonesia's own Forest Minister stated that 'allowing the import and trade of illegal timber products could be considered as an act to assist or even to conduct forest crime'. Yet incredibly, the trade to the UK continues. Approximately 50% of UK tropical plywood imports are from
Indonesia's rainforests.

Indonesian companies whose products are being used on the Home Office construction site include Raja Garunda Mas (RGM) and Sumalindo Lestari Jaya.

RGM produced the plywood used for holding the wet concrete in place. The group continues to log some of Sumatra's last remaining lowland rainforests, the only refuge of the Sumatran orang-utan. Over the winter of 1998/99 one of RGM's companies called police in to quell community protests against its seizure of community land in Sumatra: seven people were shot dead by police; 90 are alleged to have been abducted or tortured; two have disappeared and five remain blinded or crippled.

Sumalindo produced the rainforest plywood for the hoardings on this site. The company has a long history of social strife on its concessions, and just last year workers at its plywood mill went unpaid for four months. It has been alleged that the company torched plantations in order to get compensation. The company is partly owned by Bob Hasan, a crony of the former Indonesian dictator Soeharto, who is in jail for
defrauding the Indonesian Department of Forestry. Sumalindo is currently being taken over by an Indonesian military front company.

EDITORS NOTES:
* For more information or to arrange interviews contact Louise Edge on site on 07801 212993 or 07950 204268 or the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255. Photos and film from the action and of the wildlife, people and rainforests in Indonesia are also available.
* Full references for this material can be found in the full report Partners in crime: a Greenpeace investigation of the links between the UK and Indonesia's timber barons at www.saveordelete.com. or in the summary media briefing, available from the press office.

(1) 2 Marsham Street, London SW1 used to be the Department of
Environment HQ. The new headquarters for the Home Office is being built on the site, as part of a £22.6 million refurbishment. Photographic evidence of all Indonesian timber used on 2 Marsham Street is available from the Greenpeace press office. More details are in the Partners in crime
report.
(2) FSC certification ensures that timber products come from socially and environmentally responsible forest management.
(3) From response to written question from Joan Walley, abour MP for Stoke on Trent North, 8 May 2003.
(4) Letter of 9 May 2003. Copies available from Greenpeace Press Office.
* 'The UK Government gives absolute priority to combating the importation and use of illegally logged timber in the UK.' - Michael Meacher, UK Environment Minister, 2002.
* 'We have already promised that as a government we will purchase timber only from legal and sustainable sources - Tony Blair, UK Prime Minister, 2001.
* "Expecting or asking one country to combat illegal logging while at the same time , receiving or importing illegal logs does not support efforts to combat these forests crimes...In fact, allowing the import and trade of illegal timber products could be considered as an act to assist or even to conduct forest crime" - Muhammed Prakosa, Indonesian
Forest Minister, 26 January 2003.