WORLD-WIDE CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO COMBAT
WTO ASSAULT ON LAST REMAINING FORESTS

For immediate release, Monday June 28, 1999

SEATTLE, Washington - International forest protection leaders today
announced a global campaign to derail World Trade Organization (WTO) plans
to write trade agreements that will threaten the world's forests at the
upcoming WTO Ministerial here this November.

"The WTO is a threat to forests around the world, and forest protection
activists around the world will work to stop it," said former US
Congressman Jim Jontz, now Executive Director of American Lands Alliance.

The campaign announcement followed a forest protection summit held outside
Seattle that included forty activists from fourteen countries.
Representatives came from forest products-exporting nations Indonesia,
Chile, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, and Russia, where the bulk of
the Earth's remaining old growth forests are located, and from heavy
forest
products-using countries Japan, the United States and the European Union.
A wide range of Seattle-based forest protection organizations also
participated.

"With such diversity and depth of experience, we are confident of ending
WTO measures that will increase consumption of forest products without any
regard for the well-being of the environment," said conference organizer
Victor Menotti of International Forum on Globalization.

The organizations outlined regional problems in which proposed WTO trade
initiatives would exacerbate forest destruction, and developed strategies
to preempt decisions at the Seattle Ministerial. Each group will bring
pressure to bear on the WTO, from lobbying governments to demonstrations
in
the streets of Seattle.

"Seattle is a hotbed of forestry activism," said Paige Fischer of Pacific
Environment and Resources Center. "The WTO is coming here to sign deals
that will fast-track the destruction of the world's forests, so they can
expect significant opposition."

A meeting of the gathered organizations developed the following position
statement:

The WTO is bad for forests. Measures to expedite trade in forest products
will increase consumption without concurrently implementing conservation
measures. In the WTO, trade provisions are supreme over the laws of
nations, taking power away from local communities and governments and
giving it to corporations. This makes it a direct threat not only to the
world's remaining forests, but also to basic individual and states'
rights.
The WTO is fundamentally flawed because it develops far-reaching policies
without public participation. These policies are prioritized only by their
benefit to trade, without consideration for local economies, the
environment, labor and human rights. Before the WTO takes on any new
powers, or enacts any new provisions, each member government must step
back
and look at how the WTO has helped or hurt its citizens and the world
environment.

Organizations at the summit - from the USA unless otherwise indicated -
included: A SEED (UK), American Lands Alliance, Bureau for Regional Public
Campaigning (Russia/Siberia), Citizens Committee of Puerto Mott (Chile),
Earth Justice Law Center, Forum on the Environment (Indonesia), Friends of
the Earth, GATT Watchdog (New Zealand), International Forum on
Globalization, Institute for Socio-Economic Analysis (Brazil), Otway
Foundation (Chile), Pacific Environment and Resources Center, Raincoast
Conservation Society (Canada), Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club,
Tropical Forest Kyoto (Japan), Valhalla Wilderness Society (Canada), World
Forest Movement (UK).
___________________________________________

Rainforest Action Network
221 Pine Stret #500
San Francisco, CA 94014

Telephone: 415/398-4404; fax: 415/398-2732
Website: http://www.ran.org