Madam, - On Saturday, February 12th, 2005, at a remote encampment about 50km from the town of Anapu at the edge of the Amazon rainforest, 70-year-old Dorothy Stang lost her life. It was no accident. Forensic scientists estimated that the gunmen were less than a metre away when they shot her.
She was a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame and her charitable work for local communities and their environment got in the way of people who had vested interests in illegal logging and land clearing. In 1988 Chico Mendez was shot six times at close range for similar activities in Brazil. I cite these incidents least there be any doubt about the murky world out of which illegal tropical timber emerges.
It is disturbing, then, to learn from the non-government organisation Just Forests that illegally logged tropical timber is being imported into Ireland. The same NGO is now highlighting another disturbing development. Offaly County Council, to its credit, became the first local authority in Ireland formally to adopt a timber procurement policy in an attempt to exclude illegally logged timber products from its building works. But seven years on, the policy apparently has still not been put into practice.
This country has been a significant user of tropical hardwoods for decades; it was the highest per capita importer in Europe in the late 1980s. In 2000 we imported €133 million worth of this material in many forms, often from illegal sources.
This trend continues. However, successive Irish governments, which might have been expected to give a lead, have largely ignored the issue. They have also given little support to efforts to provide aid to forestry projects to make amends for more than half a century of exploitation, despite repeated approaches.
These failures by national and local authorities call into question the genuineness of Ireland's aspirations towards sustainable development. Timber importers continue to purchase with few restrictions. The building industry and businesses appear to have little interest in the sustainability of the materials they are using.
It should be emphasised that there is nothing wrong with buying and using tropical hardwoods; indeed, this can be immensely beneficial to tropical countries, provided the timber is being produced sustainably.
How can illegally logged timber imports be stopped and how best can this country put something back into tropical forestry in compensation for years of exploitation? We need to find answer to these questions urgently.
To achieve this, TEAK 21 hereby calls for a national forum of relevant players (authorities, the private sector and civil society) to be set up to develop a consensus and execute a solid time-bound programme. We are willing to play an actively role in a forum of this type.
- Yours, etc,
RAYMOND M. KEOGH, International Co-ordinator, TEAK 21, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin 14.