For Immediate Release:
June 3, 1997
Contact: Barbara Gaddy
910-430-0578 (from 10AM-1:30 PM)
910-854-2957 (after)
Activists Storm Universal Furniture;
Demand End to Mahogany Logging
What: Two activists calling for an end to unsustainable mahogany logging have just stormed the Universal Furniture headquarters. Universal is one of the biggest mahogany users in the furniture industry and has, for over a year, refused to meet with Greensboro-based EarthCulture. Today, EarthCulture's Programs Director, Rick Spencer, and Intern, Chris Newsom are staging a sit-in at Universal headquarters until the president meets with them.
Other rainforest activists are lining Business I-85 in front of the Universal facility, and have unfurled a 50 foot banner that reads, "Save the Amazon! Don't Buy Mahogany!" Protestors have travelled from Greensboro, Boone, Charlotte, and Chapel Hill for this demonstration.
When: NOW! The sit-in started at 11 AM and will last until Universal listens to protesters demands.
Where: Universal Furniture Headquarters at 2622 Uwharrie Rd. in High Point, NC. The office is just off of Business I-85.
Why: Because mahogany is so rare, illegal loggers often invade indigenous and wildlife reserves, and have killed those who stand in their way. At least eight Brazilian tribes have lost members at the hands of these pirate loggers. Eighty-five per cent of all mahogany entering the US is illegalÑ stolen from native lands.
"We are acting in defense of endangered mahogany, the dying Amazon rainforest, and its people who are massacred for luxury furniture items," said Chris Newsom, just before entering the headquarters with a banner that says, "Mahogany is Murder!"
"We have called for a ban on all unsustainable rainforest woods, including mahogany, teak, lauan, rosewood, and ramin," says EarthCulture's Barbara Gaddy. "Commercial logging is the leading cause of rainforest destruction, and we're acting today to tell Universal that there are alternatives to displacing and killing native peoples, cutting our most diverse ecosystems, and pushing a magnificent species into extinction."
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(
geocities.com/rainforest)