Protest at Trade Me HQ against sales of kwila

Protest at Trade Me HQ against sales of rainforest timber

Human rights and rainforest activists will take their campaign against the import of kwila to the Trade Me Headquarters: 11 Cable St, Wellington on Thursday 27 May. The campaigners will assemble at Te Papa at 12-45 pm and march to the Trade Me office with a letter for the CEO. The action will be enlivened with street theatre featuring an endangered cassowary from West Papua.

Several major Kiwi companies including The Warehouse, The BBQ Factory and Harvey Norman have accepted that selling rainforest kwila is unethical and unsustainable and have now stopped stocking it. But every day on Trade Me upwards of 200 products made from kwila are listed for sale by auction.

Spokesperson Maire Leadbeater said “ Trade Me prides itself on its ethical reputation and recently put in place procedures to restrict the trade in ivory because elephants are listed with the CITES convention as endangered. But the ethical issues are just as serious with kwila the species faces extinction in less than 35 years if logging continues. Each kwila tree takes 75 years to grow to maturity, and it has already been logged out of most of its former Asia-Pacific range. Almost all of the kwila outdoor furniture and decking on sale in New Zealand is made from wood sourced from the rainforests of Indonesian-occupied West Papua, where illegal logging is the norm.”

“ Trade Me should also consider the human rights abuses that are intrinsic to major logging operations in West Papua where the security forces are involved at every stage of the industry. Forest destruction is a tragedy for indigenous people who rely on these ancient forests for food, water and medicine.”

“Additionally, the loss of tropical rainforests is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions."

“There is a growing movement in Indonesia and West Papua trying to stem deforestation and protect indigenous rights. We should support them by ending the unethical trade in kwila."

ENDS