Datuk Wong, head of Brazilian plywood producer Amaplac, is meeting Greenpeace in an effort to win agreement on sustainable logging of Amaplac’s lands in Amazonia.
The timber magnate, who also heads the WTK timber multi-national, was due to meet Greenpeace’s campaign director John Sauven on June 29 to find a way to allow logging on more than 300,000ha of Amaplac land.
Greenpeace will consider sanctioning logging on the land only if Datuk allocates part of it to the native Deni indians, implements sustainable, FSC-accredited forestry and ends the use of third-party log supplies.
Greenpeace points to new data showing destruction of the Amazon continuing at an alarming rate – in the year to August 2000 deforestation rose by 15% and covered 19,836km², according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.
Mr Sauven said: ‘There has been huge destruction in Para State. Amazonas is still fairly pristine and we would like it to stay that way with logging conducted in a different way.’
Amaplac wants to start logging urgently, given the unreliability of third-party supplies.
Mike Harrod, managing director of Amaplac’s UK agent PT Agencies, said: ‘The only way Amaplac can make plywood producing in Amazonas viable is to do its own logging. It has found it cannot operate using third-party suppliers.’
