Environmental action group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has called on Weyerhaeuser Company to stop purchasing timber harvested in the Grassy Narrows First Nation area of Ontario, Canada.
In a letter to Steve Rogel, chief executive officer at the North American timber giant, RAN said that he should suspend the company’s contract for timber from the area in order to stop industrial activity being undertaken on native lands.
It said this follows Boise Inc’s decision to cease purchasing timber from the area and the Canadian parliament’s decision to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which prohibits industrial activity on native lands without the free, prior and informed consent.
A 2007 report from Amnesty International said that clear-cut logging in the Grassy Narrows area constituted a breach of human rights as it prevented the native people from preserving the area for traditional acts such as hunting and trapping.
