UPDATE - Greenpeace to appeal UK mahogany ruling
Date: 14-Mar-02
Country: UK
Author: Stefano Ambrogi
Last week the environmental pressure group tried unsuccessfully to argue the cargo had been imported illegally because it contravened the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), which Britain has signed.
Mahogany is listed under the CITES treaty to prevent its unsustainable or illegal exploitation.
Greenpeace accuses the British government of allowing imports of Amazonian mahogany through the back door by disregarding the way export licences are issued.
Greenpeace said the fact that Brazil outlawed the trade and transport of mahogany last October after finding that 70 percent of the timber was being logged illegally strengthened its case. In December Brazil extended the ban to logging.
The shipment Greenpeace had wanted the British government to seize had been logged prior to the ban. The 811-cubic-metre cargo, that arrived aboard the MV Cunene, had now cleared customs in Liverpool, Greenpeace said. It said another cargo was due to arrive in Britain in the next 10 days.
The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would not comment on the appeal, but a spokeswoman said: "The reason why the British government is allowing cargoes in is because they have the necessary licences...The licences are issued by the Brazilian authorities...We obviously don't agree with any illegal imports."
Greenpeace campaigner Andy Tait said the group had new evidence from the Brazilian authority which issued the export licence, in this case the Environment Agency IBAMA, which he said it would use in its appeal case.
Greenpeace said IBAMA had been forced by Brazilian courts to allow limited exports of timber by companies that could show they had logged the timber before the trade ban was enforced.
EMBASSY LETTER
A letter sent from the Brazilian Embassy to the UK Timber Trade Federation (TTF) in March, and seen by Reuters, clearly states that IBAMA is appealing against court decisions in Brazil to allow some companies to export.
In the letter, the Brazilian Embassy says the decision to allow exports was taken without IBAMA's input.
It also states that the Brazilian government could not vouch for cargoes exported after the ban came into force.
"The origin of the mahogany shipped after the issuing of Instrucao Normativa No. 17 (October 19, 2001) cannot be certified by IBAMA," the letter reads.
Penny Bienz, head of environmental affairs at the TTF, said: "Further to the court case, we have told our 500 members that importing mahogany poses a substantial risk. The Brazilian government really needs to make itself clear on the issue of export permits."
Greenpeace said Britain was the third largest importer of Brazilian mahogany, which is used to make furniture, musical instruments, window frames and coffins.
IBAMA has seized 20,000 cubic metres of mahogany that has been illegally logged in the Amazonian rainforest.
It estimates there is as little as eight years of mahogany left at current rates of deforestation.