Toronto, July 5, 2005 – Greenpeace’s Forest Crimes Unit today set up a Forest Crime Scene at Kimberly-Clark’s Canadian headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario. Kimberly-Clark, the world’s largest manufacturer of tissue products and maker of the world famous Kleenex brand, is guilty of crimes against ancient forests, for making disposable products out of clearcut ancient forests including Canada’s Boreal forest
“It is an environmental crime that Kimberly-Clark is clearcutting 10,000 year old forests to make products that are used once and then thrown away or flushed down the toilet, despite the fact that alternatives exist,” said Christy Ferguson, Greenpeace Forests Campaigner. “We are calling on Kimberly-Clark to stop buying pulp from clearcut ancient forests, and to drastically increase the recycled content in all of their products.”
Amid sirens and flashing lights, activists wearing Forest Crimes Unit shirts cordoned off areas of the headquarters with yellow crime scene tape and marked chalk outlines of the victims of clearcutting on the pavement outside the building. Other volunteers handed out leaflets and put up ‘wanted’ posters.
“Kimberly-Clark is armed with chainsaws and feller bunchers and is considered dangerous to ancient forests and wildlife like woodland caribou, a species at risk,” said Ferguson. “Consumers can do their part to stop this forest criminal by not buying Kleenex brand tissue products.”
Currently, less than 19 percent of the pulp Kimberly-Clark uses for tissue products is from recycled sources, and none is used for Kleenex products sold in most grocery stores in Canada. Much of the pulp used is sourced from Canada’s Boreal forest including large areas of intact forests in Ontario and Alberta.
Stretching from Newfoundland to the Yukon, the Boreal forest is home to hundreds of wide-ranging wildlife species, including moose, caribou, lynx, bear and wolves. Thirty percent of North America’s songbirds and forty per cent of its waterfowl nest in the forests and wetlands of the Boreal. This carbon storehouse also plays an important role in fighting climate change. Greenpeace has been campaigning against Kimberly-Clark’s destructive forest practices since November 2004. Because the company has not responded to meetings and letters, Greenpeace is using non-violent civil disobedience like today’s event to escalate the pressure on the company.
B-roll and high resolutions photos of boreal forests and clearcuts are available.
CONTACT: Christy Ferguson, Greenpeace (416) 451-9354
