International Forest Defenders Take Message to National Geographic: “Use Recycled, Chlorine-Free Paper” For Immediate Release: May 14, 1999 Greensboro, NC— National Geographic continues to have an incredible impact on the world, exposing millions to the beauty and importance of the natural world, and the threats to it. International environmental groups are now turning to the magazine for a solution. A group of 30 organizations from 5 countries called on National Geographic Society today, demanding they launch a responsible paper purchasing program to demonstrate their commitment to protecting forests and their inhabitants around the world. The US consumes nearly 20% of all wood products in the world. Paper consumed in the US comes from devastated forests of the Amazon, the temperate rainforests of Chile, Siberia, and British Columbia, and from Indonesian rainforests, where the endangered orangutan calls home. About 75% of the paper we consume comes from the Southeastern United States, however. Paper companies are wreaking havoc on these forests in a blitzkrieg attack. 108 of the region’s 140 chip mills were constructed between 1985 and 1997 as large timber industries shifted out of the overcut forests of the Pacific Northwest. 1.2 million acres of forests are impacted every year due to the operation of the region’s chip mills. These facilities grind whole logs into quarter-sized wood chips for paper. The current level of pulp and paper production in the southeast is unprecedented and is causing massive clearcutting which degrades our water quality, landscape, wildlife habitat, local forest-dependent economies, and overall quality of life. In the past 2 decades, the conversion of native forests to pulp plantations has spread like wildfire all over the world, with vast expanses of loblolly and radiata pine, gmelina, and eucalyptus creating a biological wasteland. “American corporations hold an immense power to save the world’s forests by changing their purchasing policies. National Geographic can serve as the measuring stick for other publications in paper purchasing in addition to superior reporting,” said EarthCulture’s Rick Spencer. The letter to National Geographic urges them to: • Increase paper and cardboard recycling efforts and use 100% recycled or agricultural residue, chlorine-free office paper immediately. • Print the magazine on chlorine-free recycled and agricultural residue fiber products in the next year, and; • Reduce their overall paper consumption by making a smaller magazine, whether by reducing ad space, going quarterly, or printing smaller photos by 2001. Below is a list of sign-on groups: EarthCulture, Greensboro, NC Native Forest Network, Missoula, MT Yellowhead Ecological Association, Clearwater, B.C., Canada Rainforest Information Centre, Lismore, Australia Action Resource Center, Los Angeles, CA Raincoast Conservation Society, Bella Bella, B.C., Canada American Lands, Washington, DC Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project, Asheville, NC AK Regenwald, Darmstadt, Germany Alternatives in Action!, Nichols, GA Active Students for a Healthy Environment, Asheville, NC Rainforest Relief, Brooklyn, NY Clean Water Action Council of N.E. Wisconsin, Green Bay, WI The Clinch Coalition, Coeburn, VA Memphis Audubon Society, Memphis, TN Action for Community & Ecology in the Rainforests of Central America, Burlington, VT Earth Mama Productions, Brentwood, TN Coalition for Jobs and the Environment, Abingdon, VA University of Chicago Environmental Concerns Association, Chicago, IL Keweenaw Bioregion Chapter of the Alliance for Democracy Coordination Center for Nature and Environment, Goettingen, Germany Leavenworth Audubon Adopt-a-Forest, Leavenworth, KS Dogwood Alliance, Brevard, NC Middlebury College Rainforest Action Group, Middlebury, VT Forevergreen, Greensboro, NC Mary Lou Dolan, Director, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, IN EarthWINS, Shawano, WI Youth Environmental Action, the Netherlands Foundation for Global Sustainability, Knoxville, TN Friends of the Earth Utrecht, the Netherlands