by frog
Catherine Delahunty visited Rotorua on Tuesday to highlight issues around the import of illegal and unsustainable forestry. The central North Island town was the latest whistle stop on an awareness tour that has already visited Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Catherine visited The Warehouse, with Rotorua Green Party members and an “orang-utan” (a supporter dressed in costume) to congratulate them for their commitment to selling Forest Stewardship certficated products such as outdoor furniture.
The Green Party delegation also visited the Van Dyks furniture store, where they discussed the need to see progress towards fully certification of any kwila products. Catherine said:
The Green Party recognises that its is not easy for retailers to ensure all their tropical timber products are fully sustainable but we are asking them to challenge importers to step up and guarantee that this summer’s outdoor furniture and decking is not contributing to the death of the rainforest.
Catherine also spoke at an evening community meeting at the Rave Arts Centre, calling for support for her Member’s Bill that regulates the import of tropical timber products to ensure they are legal and sustainable. Her Bill will be coming before Parliament for its first reading next month.
People on the streets of Auckland, Petone, Christchurch and Rotorua are very keen on saving rainforests. They are hungry for information and it behoves the Government to listen.
She says the orang-utan outfit sparked interest.
Many Maori were interested in Catherine’s appeal for solidarity with indigenous peoples in the Pacific, particularly when they met activist Paula Makabory from West Papua, who was present on the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch legs of the tour.
Catherine said the New Zealand Imported Tropical Timber Group (ITTG) – that comprises representatives of New Zealand’s tropical timber importers, tropical timber retailers, and environment and conservation organisations – strongly supports sustainably managed tropical timber and met with Forestry Minister David Carter recently.
Brickbats and bouquets has been a recurring theme in Catherine’s awareness campaign.
A lot of timber importers and retailers have lifted their game but rogue players continue to undermine the strength of certification.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by frog on Thu, September 10th, 2009
Tags: Catherine Delahunty, kwila, paula makabory, tropical timber, west papua
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
fly..i see your request..
(on the grounds of basic dignity)
that green m.p’s stop consorting publicly with people in animal costumes..
has been studiously ignored..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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behooves … behoofs – lucky she wan’t spotted by a lonely male orang – u -tang looks like… i’m with the Fly here.. don’t do animals – steal their good name… just calm the ones on their hind legs couldya?
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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…..come on old sun – the jails are all full – the money is all gone back to drink – and there’s comfort in that if you’re a Blue-Nose Southerner…..good footy team though.
Tame thyself Fly – take yourself in Hand!
and send us pictures…
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Just as soon as I’ve peeled of this latex blind-mole-rat suit, I’ll pour myself a Greenman and get down to it.
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“..She says the orang-utan outfit sparked interest..”
as it would..
but how do you define ‘interest’..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Well done in using persuasion rather than force. It is the moral way to change behaviour.
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Rainforrests are really amazing places and should be left alone there is plenty of land to grow trees for outdoor furniture
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To get a little more serious on this issue – An interesting article on Alternet regarding the fraud that is occuring on an apparently wide scale (according to this correspondent), when regulations mandate importation of ‘certified sustainable’ tropical hardwood.
It seems the process has been nobbled on a massive scale & certification is hardly worth the paper it’s written on – no pun intended.
Recycled plastics are put forward as a viable alternative – problem – who wants plastic decking or deck furniture ?
http://www.alternet.org/story/142327/high_crime_on_the_high_line%3A_why_is_nyc%27s_highest-profile_park_using_amazon_wood?page=entire
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from http://www.tengaetrees.com: the same sort human rights issues, the same sort of environment issues, but just a little closer to home!
“Thirty seven years ago I was jailed for refusing to serve in the military forces of the New Zealand state. I was confined in Her Majesty’s Mount Eden prison, where many of our people, from Rua Kenana to Peter Fraser, Jim Edwards and Tim Shadbolt had been imprisoned for “offences” against a malign and malevolent state. In each case these “offences” amounted to nothing more the determination to serve God, our people, and the cause of justice, and to stand apart from the actions of a ruthless and corrupt political establishment. I had refused to serve in the New Zealand military because I would not be complicit in the state-sanctioned murder and robbery which has been the modus operandi of the colonial regime since the day of its inception.
Now, after a lifetime during which I have seen the Crown constantly challenging and denying our most fundamental human rights, the New Zealand state is claiming the “right” to seize and destroy the trees on my half-acre of land at Te Ngae. It is not as though the state has no respect for property. Those individuals who control the workings of the state – from Queen Elizabeth with all her palaces, castles, and royal estates, through the Ministers of the Crown to the Members of Parliament, Mayors, Judges, Commissioners and Solicitors to the Crown – all have a healthy respect for their own property, as well they may because they waste no opportunity to increase their own private wealth. But they have no respect for the property of the ordinary people. Our properties, like my half-acre at Te Ngae, are there to be seized on a whim, for the sake of any mad, environmentally or economically catastrophic plan which comes into the heads of a corrupt political establishment and which they believe may work to their own personal financial advantage.
Those who have followed the dispute between the Rotorua Regional Airport Company and myself over the trees of Te Ngae will know that over a period of fifteen years – nearly a quarter of my lifetime – I have made many concessions to the airport company, which is a proxy for the Rotorua District Council, which in turn is a proxy for the Crown. Every concession I have made has been followed by new and increased demands. When I successfully argued in the Crown courts my right to grow trees on my own land under the Crown’s own legal principles, the Crown cynically amended its rules to remove that right. Yet still, as of Friday last week, I was prepared to enter into a mediation process with the state, and under the auspices of the state. I took my ground on the principle that what the state chooses to seize or destroy, the state should replace. The state has responded with arrogance, attempts at intimidation, and flagrant abuses of its own processes.
I had been criticized by some for agreeing to mediation with the Crown. I said at the time that it was right and proper to join in dialogue aimed at avoiding conflict and helping to establish a basic principle by which relations between our people and the colonial regime could be regulated. And I still believe that I did the right thing by agreeing to mediation. But now it has become obvious that the Crown has no intention of allowing its relations with the people to be founded on principles of fairness and justice, and the only path remaining open to me is the path of conflict. That conflict could not have been avoided forever, because the Crown is an alien, hypocritical and corrupt institution, imposed upon our people by brute force, and maintained largely in the interests of foreign powers, whereas the proper institutions of government must arise out of the will of the people, they must protect the rights of the people, and they must at all times acknowledge the principles of natural justice.
The Crown has trampled upon our rights. It has taken our property, it has taken our liberty, and it may not hesitate to take our lives. But it can never take our will to resist. Ka whawhai tonu matou ake ake ake!
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He aha tou tikanga whawhai?
Kia hiwa raa!
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