Activists Deliver Coffin with Message,
"Bury Those Killed for Rainforest Woods!"

For Immediate Release: October 10, 1997
Contact: Kevin Henderson, 910-854-2957

Lexington, NC- EarthCulture just hit the furniture industry's largest user of mahogany, and demanded Lexington Furniture Industries stop using all rainforest woods. A small team of activists entered the Lexington headquarters at 415 Salisbury St., at 3 PM on Friday, October 10, and delivered a black coffin symbolizing the many indigenous peoples killed or attacked for tropical timber. They held a banner which reads, "Buying Rainforest Wood Kills Native Peoples," and gave Lexington's president extensive documentation on rainforest logging.

Lexington Furniture Industries is the biggest user of mahogany, largely used in their Arnold Palmer line, and the company has refused to meet with EarthCulture, ignoring letters and phone calls. Mahogany is perhaps the worst example of catastrophic rainforest logging. At least 8 Brazilian tribes have had people murdered at the hands of pirate mahogany loggers in search of the rare tree. Logging operations in Guyana, Nicaragua, Belize, and throughout Latin America are threatening indigenous populations so that Americans can have luxurious mahogany furniture. The Brazilian government has just admitted 80% of all logging in the Amazon is illegal.

EarthCulture, has been instrumental in revamping a boycott on all temperate and tropical rainforest woods unless they can be independently certified as sustainable. Some particular woods included in the boycott are: teak, ramin, redwood, mahogany, lauan, meranti, western red cedar, ebony, rosewood, and ipe'.

"All over the planet, rainforests are being destroyed and their peoples killed, attacked, or displaced for American consumption," says protester Kevin Henderson. "A lot of this rainforest wood is ending up at North Carolina furniture manufacturers, making them accomplices in these crimes."

The fires currently raging in Indonesia are a tragic testament to American wood consumption. These fires were started in logging operations, and so far, nearly 300 people have died as a result. The main export wood from Indonesia is lauan (also known as meranti or Philippine mahogany) plywood, which is used in veneer, drawers and backing in the furniture industry, as well as door skins, veneer, and in construction.
# # #

______________________
EarthCulture
PO Box 4674
Greensboro, NC 27404
Phone & Fax: 910-854-2957