Stephanie Goodwin, a senior Greenpeace forest campaigner from Vancouver, BC, watched from a boat along the adjacent river with two journalists as 12 other activists scaled four cranes at the port to stop pulp exports. They displayed a huge banner that read: “Forest Destruction: You can stop this.” The message is for world leaders, including Prime Minister Harper, and urges them to take strong leadership to avert a climate crisis and to provide funds (1) needed to end global deforestation as part of a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate deal in Copenhagen.

“Deforestation in countries like Indonesia is one of the main causes of climate change, accounting for a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions,” (2) said Goodwin from the Kampar Peninsula on Sumatra in Indonesia. “Harper must take a leadership role in Copenhagen and commit to ending tropical deforestation, reducing greenhouse emissions and protecting carbon stores like Canada’s own Boreal Forest (3) to avert mass species extinction, floods, droughts and famine in our lifetime.”

The Greenpeace action comes as Harper, Obama and other leaders attempt to relegate the Copenhagen Climate deal to little more than a political statement and to postpone critical decisions on a legally binding agreement to later in 2010.

“Harper and Obama cannot be allowed to sabotage a strong outcome in Copenhagen because of their government’s lack of political will,” said Shailandra Yashwant, Campaign Director, Greenpeace Southeast Asia. “Our leaders must agree to nothing short of a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal to avert climate disaster. Significant funds are urgently needed to end tropical deforestation in Indonesia and around the world. This must be a central part of any climate pact.”

Paper giant APP sells its products on the global market in China, the United States, Europe and Australia and supplies many international brands and distributors with pulp and paper products including Vogue, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Marc Jacobs. APP and its main competitor Asia Pacific Resource Holdings International, are together responsible for destroying rainforests and their carbon-rich peat soil across Indonesia, including on the endangered Kampar Peninsula, Sumatra. (4) Containing 2 billion tonnes of carbon, the Peninsula is one of the planet’s largest natural carbon stores and a key defence against global climate change. (5)

Greenpeace has been working with local communities from a Climate Defenders’ Camp on the Peninsula over the past month to highlight the central role that deforestation plays in driving global climate change. Greenpeace took action in the area against APRIL on November 12. Since then, both the environmental organisation and the local communities have been under sustained intimidation by the authorities including threats, arrests, evictions and deportations. (6) Last week the Indonesia’s Forest Minister, Mr. Zulkifli Hasan, suspended APRIL logging operations pending a review of the company’s permits.

Indonesia is the world’s third largest climate polluter after China and the US, mainly as a result of the ongoing destruction of its forests and their peat soils. (7)

(On November 16, Indonesian police detained, interrogated and later deported two Greenpeace activists from Italy and Germany and two independent journalists from India and Italy, all of whom were travelling on valid business and journalist visas. Eleven other people from Greenpeace were also deported that week.

For more information, please contact:

Stephanie Goodwin, Greenpeace Canada senior forest campaigner, onsite at action in Indonesia: +62 081 388 678441
Jessica Wilson, Greenpeace Canada media and PR officer, in Vancouver: 1-778-228-5404
Martin Baker, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Communications Director: +62 (0) 8131 5829513

Photos, B roll and a video feature package are available from:

Michael Nagasaka, Greenpeace International video producer: +44 (0)7533625409
John Novis, Greenpeace International photography: +44 (0) 7801 615 889

Notes to the editor:

(1) Greenpeace estimates that ending global deforestation requires industrialised countries to invest $42 billion annually in forest protection.

(2) Calculated from: IPCC (2007). IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group III, Final Chapter 1. Page 104. Figure 1.(2: Sources of global CO2 emissions, 1970-2004 (only direct emissions by sector). http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg3.htm

(3) The Boreal Forest stores more than 186 billion tonnes of carbon in its soils and trees, amounting to 27 times the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. www.greenpeace.ca/turninguptheheat

(4) Combined, APRIL and APP control 73% of Indonesia’s total pulp capacity and own two of the world’s largest pulp mills.

(5) WRI 2008. Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) Version 6.0 (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute) http://cait.wri.org

(6) FAO 2005. Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2005.http://www.fao.org/forestry/site/fra2005/en/

(7) Calculated from: IPCC (2007). IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group III, Final Chapter 1. Page 104. Figure 1.2: Sources of global CO2 emissions, 1970-2004 (only direct emissions by sector). http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg3.htm

For further information please see: http://www.greenpeace.org/climatedefenders