Were You Aware?

That this is National Junk Mail Awareness Week organized by the Center for a New American Dream? And were you aware that more than 100 million trees’ worth of bulk mail arrive in American mail boxes each year – that’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.

During the first annual Junk Mail Awareness Week (October 1-7), which coincides with the peak of junk mail season and the third anniversary of the implementation of the federal Do Not Call registry, New American Dream and their partners will draw national attention to tools that give Americans control over their private mail boxes. 3 states have already initiated legislative efforts to make it easier to opt-out of junk mail and momentum is building for Congress to act.

Rally Against Pulp Mill in Tasmania

On September 16, approximately 8000 people marched through the streets of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia to rally against the Gunns' planned pulp mill.

The pulp mill is proposed for the Tamar River near Bell Bay in northern Tasmania. If it proceeds the mill will eventually consume 4 million tonnes of logs each year.

“Today’s fantastic turn-out is a show of strength against the pulp mill which will pollute the air and sea and devastate our native forests if it goes ahead,” said Geoff Law

See a short video of the rally.....

More on this issue here....

Boreal Business

An economists' new report lends an economic accounting to the "value" of a primary zone of pulp and paper production. Forests in northern nations such as Russia and Canada are worth US$250 billion a year because of services they provide by purifying water or soaking up greenhouse gases, a researcher said on Tuesday from the National Forest Congress in Ottowa, Canada.

Read more on this story....

Ready with a management and conservation solution at the Congress were 60 businesses who put forward their support for the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, - a balanced vision for conservation and sustainable development in Canada 's Boreal forest.

Read more on this story....

Hemp on Hold at French Mill

Workers at Stora Enso's mill in Corbehem, France who had been laid off earlier this year when two machines were shut down, marched this week to protest Stora Enso backing out on a deal to sell the two machines to a company called Green Recovery. Green Recovery planned to rehire 180 workers, and add 100 jobs running a machine to produce hemp paper for Europe. The workers protested in front of the Finnish and Swedish embassies.

South America in the Crosshairs of the Industry

A new report from Greenpeace Argentina presents forecasted statistics for the rapid expansion of pulp and paper production in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil. The growth threatens to be disastrous to the ecosystems and public health of the area.

More information on the report is available in Spanish here....

"Writing on the Wall" - An English language news article about the report is available here...

The Packaging Planet

This week Wal-Mart announced at the Clinton Global Initiative that it will be working to reduce its packaging impact by working with its 60,000 suppliers. Read more...

International Paper Burning Sludge and Tires?

A battle between Vermont and New York and public health advocates and International Paper (IP) is "heating up" over burning of tires and sludge at their Ticonderoga plant. As a toxic "test burn" approaches without the installation of best available technology, customers of IP are weighing in and a boycott is looming.

For more info on this issue visit People for Less Pollution.

For a Boston Globe Article on the Issue Click Here

Businesses Say Shame on Kimberly-Clark

In a bold ad in the National Edition of the New York Times newspaper, Greenpeace announced that more than 650 businesses in North America and from around the world are refusing to use tissue products manufactured by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation and made from ancient forests. The businesses are calling on the company to use more recycled fiber and pulp from sustainable logging operations in its products including Kleenex brand facial tissue. Visit the Forest Friendly 500 webpage to learn more.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Will today's news be a net gain or a net loss for sustainability? Can these companies lead ethically and responsibly into the future?

Weyco and Domtar Fine Papers to Merge

Stora Enso Buys International Paper holdings in Brazil

Schwarzenegger's Great Opportunity

Rainforest Action Network today called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act, which passed the state Assembly on Wednesday with strong bipartisan support. The bill would lift the ban on one of the most economically and ecologically promising alternatives to industrial logging and give farmers the ability to legally supply US manufacturers with hemp seed, oil and fiber.

“We need to look past all the misconceptions about hemp and embrace its potential as a sustainable raw material for everything from paper to textiles to soap,” said Brant Olsen, director of Rainforest Action Network’s Old Growth Campaign. “In signing this bill, Governor Schwarzenegger will create a boon for California farmers and our regional economy, and he will show the nation that there is an environmentally sustainable alternative to turning our last remaining forests into paper.”

Learn more...

Do You Buy Paper?

Of course, we all do. So we all need someplace convenient to find out how and where to choose and buy environmentally responsible papers. Enter Conservatree, and their new user-friendly website, with an entire new section for regular, everyday paper purchasers, choosing things like paper to put in your home desktop printer. No more excuse not to be able to find responsible paper...or that the choices are too confusing...sorry.

The Human Impact of Paper

A coalition of groups working to assist the Grassy Narrows First Nation protect their traditional lands has released a new factsheet detailing the impact on First Nations communities in Ontario, Canada, where clearcutting of the boreal forests tramples treaty rights, destroys a community's source of food, and threatens the cultural survival of communities.

Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper

The Green Press Initiative has announced that 118 US book publishers have signed an Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Purchasing, paving the way for significant changes in the paper usage of the US book publishing industry.

TRN Conference announced publicly

Very exciting for me... I live in Cambridge. This is THE paper and forest event of the year.

SAVE THE DATE!!

Taiga Rescue Network 8th Biennial Conference

The Global Importance of the Boreal Forest: Migratory Birds and the Paper Industry

10 - 13 September 2006 Clare College, Cambridge, UK

The conference will feature:

• Industry - NGO - government - science discussions to promote cross-sectoral collaboration and/or communication, build relationships and increase mutual understanding
• In-depth discussions of the world's impacts on boreal ecosystems, especially in relation to migratory birds
• The latest campaign news from around the boreal forest
• Release of the State of the Paper Industry and the Environment by the Environmental Paper Network
• Unveiling of new tools and information to help papermakers and major paper buyers improve environmental performance

Attendees will include those from the following cross section of industries:

• Paper industry and boreal forest products industry representatives
• NGOs working on paper issues, boreal forests, and related
• Indigenous peoples groups and local community organizations throughout the boreal region
• Academics - Scientists - Researchers interested in boreal forests, migratory birds and the paper industry worldwide
• Government agencies and development agencies
• Financial institutions, especially those affected by or invested in boreal regions and the paper industry

Additional meetings of Birdlife International's Forest Task Force, the Taiga Rescue Network and the Environmental Paper will be held following the conference by invitation. Additional workshop information will be made available.

Contact: Jim Ford, jim@taigarescue.org

Save the date in your diary and be sure to check back at www.taigarescue.org/conference2006 for more details as they become available. An email reminder will be sent.

Co-hosts are the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Birdlife International, Boreal Birdsong Initiative, ForestEthics, and UNEP -World Conservation Monitoring Centre with support from the Environmental Paper Network, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund and others.

www.taigarescue.org/conference2006

IP Sells coated division

International Paper has just sold its coated paper division -- including four mills that sell endangered forest fibre and are some of the dirtiest mills around. It would be interesting to know how the outstanding lawsuits against International Paper for their polluting of the Androscoggin River in beautiful Maine played a part in the sale and the ongoing controversy regarding IP's use of Endangered Forest fibre from the Rocky Mountain Foothills in Alberta.

This sale will have pretty big implications for the catalog and magazine industry since IP were one of only three players in the market for the biggest magazine and catalog publishers ('roto' publishing as it is known in the biz).

Press release link via Bloomberg from the sale.