- P R E S S A D V I S O R Y -

PRESS CONFERENCE: to Declare Global Forest Crisis, and Call for Urgent Action by UN

The Coastal Coalition (contacts on P. 2) January 24, 2000
P.O. Box 231824, Anchorage, AK 99523

When: 10 AM - 11:30 AM, MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2000

Where: UNITED NATIONS CHURCH CENTER - NY City 777 UN Plaza, corner of 44th St. & 1st Ave, Dag Hammarskjold Lounge - 12th Floor

Subject: ENVIRONMENTALISTS, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, and SCIENTISTS DECLARE GLOBAL FOREST CRISIS --- GROUPS LAMBASTE UNITED NATIONS FOR FAILING TO STOP DEFORESTATION, AND CRITICIZE WTO FOR PROPOSED GLOBAL FREE-LOGGING AGREEMENT

Forest Protection organizations from around the world will hold a press conference coinciding with the opening of the 4th and final meeting of the United Nations Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) in New York to express their outrage at the continuing loss of world forests, and call for emergency action.

Participating Organizations: International Indian Treaty Council, World Resources Institute, Indigenous Environmental Network, Rainforest Action Network, Amazon Alliance, Rainforest Foundation (U.K.), Friends of the Earth International, Global Forest Policy Project, Seventh Generation Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Eyak Preservation Council, Jack Hanna Adventures, and The Coastal Coalition.

Special Appearances: Jack Hanna, TV wildlife personality and Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, will bring several forest animals to our event after his appearance earlier that morning on ABC’s Good Morning America, to call attention to the growing threat to forest animals from global deforestation. And, the Amazon Alliance has arranged for four Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian Amazon to participate in the press conference to explain the serious threats from logging and road building facing uncontacted tribes in their region of the Amazon. Rare photographs of the uncontacted tribes will be available.

Julia Butterfly Hill, well known for living two-years in the Redwood tree "Luna" in California, will join the press conference remotely. Other celebrities have been invited.

Message:

1. World forests are in crisis — over 400 km2 of forest is lost every day, and over half of Earth’s forests are now gone,
2. forest peoples and biodiversity are critically threatened, with some 50 — 150 species lost / day,
3. the UN, IFF, and many member governments have for the last decade been all talk and no action on this issue,
4. some local and private initiatives are working effectively to address the problem, and
5. Emergency action is needed.

Some participants will call for, among other things, the immediate establishment within the United Nations of a Global Habitat Conservation Fund to pay for protection of forests and other threatened habitats throughout the world, expanded and enforced forest protected areas with full acknowledgement and respect for the rights of local and Indigenous Peoples, improved protection for forest peoples, independent certification of all forestry operations, an aggressive initiative to reduce worldwide consumption of timber and paper products, and an immediate moratorium on the further conversion of the world’s frontier forests. Some participants also will criticize the WTO for its contribution to global deforestation.

Participants will be available for one-on-one interviews immediately afterward.

Contacts:

• Rick Steiner: The Coastal Coalition (Professor, University of Alaska) afrgs@uaa.alaska.edu
• Carol Hoover: Eyak Preservation Council hooves@earthlink.net
• Carol Kalafatic: International Indian Treaty Council
• David Rothschild: Amazon Alliance

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