The Belgian timber federation – Federation Belge du Commerce D’Importation de Bois – has criticised the latest Greenpeace action against illegal imports of timber and panel products.
Greenpeace boarded the MV Greveno in the port of Antwerp on March 19, claiming it was loaded with illegal timber from Indonesia.
The environmentalists demanded that the Belgian government should seize the cargo which had earlier been to Tilbury where Greenpeace activists formed a boat blockade in a bid to prevent the ship berthing (TTJ March 20/27).
Reacting to the protests, the Belgian timber trade said in a statement that it agrees illegal logging should cease.
“However,” it went on, “Greenpeace is attacking companies and undertaking spectacular and costly actions to attract public attention based purely on supposition of guilt when, in fact, these companies’ imports are from legal sources and supported by all the relevant documentation.”
The Belgian timber trade condemned Greenpeace’s way of operating as “unethical” adding: “The consequence is that it stores up public antipathy and gives a false image of the timber import sector and wood itself when it is actually the renewable material “par excellence”.”
