‘Time running out’ for rain forests

Press, 3 February 1986, Page 14

‘Time running out’ for rain forests

NZPA-Reuter London Ecologists say that time is running out for the world’s tropical rain forests and have urged hardwood producers and consumers to set up an international hardwdod marketing organisation. The Friends of the Earth lobby group and the International Institute for Environment and Development made the plea in a letter to 30 Governments which agreed almost a year ago to set up an International Tropical Timber Organisation. “Unless the agreement is implemented soon, there will be no forests left in many countries capable of providing a continuing yield of timber,” the two Londonbased groups wrote. The timber economies of Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and the

Ivory Coast were particularly threatened, they said. The organisation will regulate the $8 billion-a-year market and a code of conduct on managing world stocks. > Disagreements over whether to site its hedquarters in Amsterdam, Jakarta or Yokohama have blocked the start of its work.

“This agreement, once in operation, is the single most important step available to saving the world’s forests, said the institute’s vice-president, Mr Richard Sandbrook.

Ecologists say indiscriminate timber felling, mostly since ,1945; has destroyed nearly half the original ’ rainforest, dubbed the lungs of the world because of its influence on climate.