As an outgrowth of our work together in San Diego, CA, Action Resource Center (ARC), Rainforest Information Centre (RIC) and Rainforest Relief turned our attention to a looming project in >Long Beach, CA, a massive waterfront redevelopment project called Queensway Bay, being developed across the bay from the famous Queen Mary. The project would include the Aquarium of the Pacific, Rainbow Harbor and eventually The Pike waterfront entertainment district, as well as a waterfront walkway hundreds of feet long and the Pine Avenue Pier, both decked with tropical hardwoods. By the time we engaged the project managers, they had already specified and bid rainforest hardwoods for the half-mile-long walkway, the Pier and floating docks along the bay. To read our initial campaign press release, click here.

In a campaign that would last 4 months and pull in 4 other local organizations, by threatening a huge demonstration at the grand opening of the Aquarium of the Pacific, Rainforest Relief, ARC and RIC eventually secured a 13-point agreement with the City of Long Beach that included, among other things:

  • Long Beach would pass an ordinance that would ban further use of uncertified rainforest woods in public projects;

  • Long Beach would contact all other municipalities in California (with a letter on recycled paper!) and alert them to the problems of using wood logged from rainforests without certification;

  • Long Beach would contact all architects listed with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in southern California and alert them as well;

    • Long Beach would create a series of interpretive signs along the Queensway Bay walkway describing rainforests, the problem with logging them (and using the wood) and what occurred in Long Beach.
  • The activist groups wouldn’t demonstrate at the opening of the aquarium.


    • Since the agreement, Long Beach passed the ordinance and made all the contacts and as well installed the signs. One of the letters reached The Disney Company and led to their shifting to using only certified woods for a very large project, the Paradise Pier, in Anaheim, CA.