N E W S R E L E A S E
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANITATION DEPARTMENT PLANS MAJOR USE OF RAINFOREST WOOD

NEW YORK CITY — April 1, 2008. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in a speech on February 11 at the United Nations, announced a plan to reduce the city’s use of tropical hardwoods.

However, analysis of the plan by Rainforest Relief, the organization that has been campaigning to stop the City’s use of tropical hardwoods, has revealed numerous flaws as well as a surprising planned increase in the use of rainforest wood. Quoting the Tropical Hardwood Reduction Plan:

"The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is about to begin the bid phase for the construction of four new Marine Transfer Stations (MTSs), three of which include docks and fendering systems that will employ greenheart [logged from the rainforests of Guyana]. The three MTSs are scheduled to begin construction in late 2008 and 2009, and when combined, the total one time greenheart material cost is estimated to be $1,815,000.

Additionally, the DSNY will soon begin design of two additional MTSs for barging recyclables from Manhattan that could involve the use of greenheart."



"This is a clandestine bait-and-switch by Mayor Bloomberg and the Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability perpetrated on New York and the international community,” said Tim Keating, Director of Rainforest Relief. “This plan allows the city to triple its use of tropical hardwoods, speeding deforestation and global warming."

Rainforest Relief, founded in New Jersey in 1989, began a campaign to eliminate the use of rainforest woods by the city in 1995 after recognizing tropical hardwoods at the Coney Island boardwalk. The ensuing campaign included high-profile acts such as hanging a 125-foot-tall banner on the historic Parachute Jump in 1998, but also working with key city staff to shift use to alternative materials, such as recycled plastic lumber.

Last year a new grassroots group, New York Climate Action Group (NYCAG), joined the campaign to end the city's use of tropical hardwoods as a way to address the city's contribution to climate change. Deforestation, mostly in the tropics, contributes an estimated 25 — 30% of human-caused greenhouse gases.

According to Rainforest Relief logging for exported wood is the primary factor leading to tropical deforestation, as roads created by loggers hunting high-value species allow access to farmers and others who completely clear logged forests.

The Tropical Hardwood Reduction Plan is flawed in a number of ways, lumping together potential alternatives such as domestic hardwoods with softwoods and recycled plastic lumber with plastic/wood composites, according to the groups. Each of these materials is different and their potential should be analyzed separately. The Mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability rejected offers by NYCAG and Rainforest Relief of briefings by experts on recycled plastic lumber and FSC certification.

NYCAG and many other groups have expressed concerns about the aspect of the Plan that proposes the use of tropical woods certified by organizations and companies accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). "Logging in old growth rainforests is not sustainable, even when certified by organizations accredited by the FSC," said JK Canepa, a founding member of NYCAG. “Roads are still bulldozed and species are still wiped out — this isn’t the answer."

The Plan projects a 60% reduction of expenditures by the city on tropical hardwoods, but only by 2020. And according to Keating, the projections are wrong. "The projected expenditures don't account for the additional purchases for the construction or maintenance of the marine transfer stations," says Keating. "Even if they were correct, the rainforests can’t wait another 20 years for the City to stop using these woods." Rainforest Relief is producing a point-by-point response to the Mayor's Tropical Hardwood Reduction Plan, which will be released prior to Earth Day, April 22.

Also, the plan does not address the use of tropical hardwoods by the NYC Transit Authority, a division of the MTA, a state agency, which uses large amounts of hardwoods logged from Africanrainforests for subway track ties.