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[greenyes] Bush Administration Position on Illegal Logging in Rainforests



E MAGAZINE

U.S. Against Sustainability Requirements for Rainforest Timber
March 22, 2005
Reporting by Roddy Scheer

Despite backing from the majority of the G8 nations currently meeting in
Derby, UK, the United States is opposing a British proposal calling on
industrialized nations to combat illegal logging in the world's threatened
rainforests by banning the purchase of timber harvested in unsustainable
manners.

U.S. opposition to the proposal came to light via a leaked State Department
memo stating concerns that without participation by fast-growing developing
nations, the plan was doomed to failure in the face of building booms across
China, India and elsewhere.
British officials came up with the controversial plan at the prompting of
Indonesia, where corruption is so rampant that authorities are unable to
stop gangs of poachers from logging in protected rainforest lands. The UK's
delegates to the G8 meeting say that the U.S. is merely interested in
keeping the price of timber down for the benefit of American companies.

"This is outrageous," says Faith Doherty of the UK's Environmental
Investigation Agency. "U.S. business simply doesn't want any restrictions on
its own practices." Whereas the U.S. claims that restricting timber
purchases would be ineffective without the participation of developing
countries, Doherty and other proponents say the success or failure of the
proposal, much like the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, hinges more on
American participation.
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