whale meat and pulp

[Guest guest]

whale meat and pulp

 

 

Sorry it was taken from our local papers and I just can't figure out how the

attachment disappeared completely. Will try again. Hope you get it this

time.

 

> Hi could you reforward me your posting titled whale meat and pulp industry

in Indonesia please as the email didn't contain any info. Many thanks, Nick.

> PS I am on the AAPN list in case you were wondering

 

 

Tuesday, March 19, 2002

 

Even more whale meat

 

JAPAN is preparing to end an 11-year ban on imports of whale meat in a move

designed to normalise international trade and to stimulate domestic demand.

Coming last Wednesday, a week after Tokyo announced plans to widen its hunt

for the mammals, the proposed change ratchets up the pressure for a

resumption of commercial killing ahead of the annual meeting of the

international whaling commission, which will be hosted by Japan in May.

 

The Japanese fisheries agency confirmed on Wednesday that it is studying a

request from Norway to resume exporting minke whale meat, which has been

kept off the international market since 1991.

According to the domestic media, samples of Norwegian whale meat have

already been shipped to Tokyo, where they will be inspected as part of the

approval process by the Trade Ministry. If accepted, the first 100 tonnes

could be imported as early as next month.

 

The prospect of a resumption of trade has enraged conservationists, who fear

it could fuel poaching and the illicit export of protected species.

" This is Japan's most aggressive move to date to revive the wholesale

slaughter of the great whales, " said Kara Brydson, of the International Fund

for Animal Welfare.Japanese officials say that the trade will only go ahead

on the condition that a DNA verification system is put in place to trace the

origins of the meat, but they dismissed criticism that it marks a step away

from the spirit of the moratorium.

" As long as the trade is done within international laws, we don't see what

the problem is, " said a fisheries official.A resumption of imports would,

however, give the lie to Japan's claims that its interest in whaling is

purely scientific. Since the international moratorium in 1986, Japanese

whalers have killed hundreds each year in the name of research, but most of

the meat and blubber ends up in restaurants and shops.Two weeks ago, Japan

said it would expand its programme by adding sei whales to the list of

hunted species. The government insists the population of several species

justifies a return to commercial whaling.

Even so, the amount of whale meat consumed in Japan is down to about 1% of

its annual peak of 200,000 tonnes. By importing from Norway - where prices

are half those in Japan - the government hopes that cost cutting will widen

the market. - Guardian News Service

 

 

Pulped to death

 

THE Indonesian pulp and paper industry is destroying rainforest at such an

astonishing rate that rare wildlife, such as Sumatran tigers and a

sub-species of elephant, in some of the most biodiverse rainforests in the

world is threatened with extinction, according to environmentalists.

They also warn Western investors that they may lose hundreds of millions of

dollars as pulping companies run out of trees to fell.

A report by Friends of the Earth focuses on Asia Pacific Resource Holdings

Ltd, whose pulp mill in the Sumatran province of Riau is the biggest in the

world, with an output of two million tonnes of woodpulp a year. Based in

Singapore, the company has borrowed heavily from Western banks to finance

its operations.

Wood and paper companies in Indonesia are given concessions to clear timber

and are supposed to replace them with plantations of fast-growing acacia

trees, so that the industry will eventually be self-sustaining.

Between 1988 and 2000, however, only 10% of the wood used in Indonesia was

from plantations.

According to the report, trees are still not being planted fast enough to

save the forests, although the pulp mill says it is on track to become 90%

self-sufficient by 2008.

The World Bank estimates that two million hectares of forest a year, an area

the size of Belgium, is being wiped out - the same rate of deforestation as

the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Somewhere between 50% and 70% of Indonesia'

s rainforests have now been destroyed, experts estimate.The report is the

second by Friends of the Earth into the destruction of forests by illegal

logging in Indonesia. The first, published last year, investigated another

company, Asian Pulp and Paper, and the environmental group persuaded some

British paper dealers to stop buying the company's products.This time Ed

Matthew, joint author of the Friends of the Earth report, is asking

consumers to boycott PaperOne, the main brand of Asia Pacific Resource

Holdings Ltd. - Guardian News Service