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.

Bank Dumps Uruguay Pulp Mill

Dutch banking giant ING announced in a letter to Friends of the Earth International, CEDHA and BankTrack that it is pulling out of a divisive venture opposed by environmentalists and local communities in Uruguay and Argentina.

The ING Group wrote in an April 12 letter that its participation in the
1.7 billion USD controversial paper mill project of Finnish company Botnia in Uruguay "is no longer under consideration".

Site of the pulp mill at Fray Bentos.
Photo credit: Giovanny Garrido/Argentinaphoto

Introducing "The Paper Planet"

Thanks for reading the inaugural post of "The Paper Planet", a new project of the Environmental Paper Network (EPN). On this site, leading environmental advocates from around the world will share tidbits, tools, tech, and tales of triumph and tragedy as society tackles one of its most challenging, and important, production and consumption issues. The pulp and paper industry is a leading contributor to global warming, a major driver of deforestation, and a top polluter of our water. Nevertheless, paper plays an important role in our society, and has and will continue to spread knowledge and culture across the planet. We touch it 100 times a day. Its everywhere, and even in our technological age we use it more and more. But even now, alternatives are available and change is possible. Right now, there are good businesses to support, creating paper with all the quality and variety that we all love to hold, but produced in a more environmentally sustainable manner. We hope you will join us on this journey as we enter an age of sustainability solutions and transform the pulp and paper industry in order to protect life on this earth as we know it.