INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR
FORESTS AND AGAINST FREE TRADE
April 19th and 20th, world-wide.

NFN Alert March, 2001

This day of action is being held in solidarity with direct actions against the SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, also occuring on the above dates. This summit of trade ministers, representatives, and government officals will be working toward the implementation of the FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS (FTAA).

The FTAA is the expansion of a NAFTA-like (North American Free Trade Agreement) throughout the Western Hemisphere, excluding Cuba. If the FTAA takes effect, it will provide the international timber industry with yet another incentive to decimate global forest ecosystems.

The Summit Of The America's trade minsters will be pushing Advanced Tariff Liberalization (ATL), known by its critics as the Global Free Logging Agreement (GFLA). The GFLA was tabled at the ill-fated November 1999 Seattle ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO), largely due to the work of activists, organizers, and citizens like ourselves. It seeks to eliminate tariff and non-tarriff barriers on raw logs and timber products. The GFLA is projected to increase the timber harvest globally by 3-4%, and thus provide further impetus for unsustainable logging practices in order to supply this gluttonous demand. The timber lobby will seek to move forward with this agreement this April at the Summit of The Americas in Quebec City.

In addition, the FTAA will nullify common sense regulatory measures including Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade (NTBs). NTBs include: sanitary/phyto-sanitary regulations, regulations controlling the flow of uninspected forest products, possible hosts to ecosystem-ravaging invasive species, as well as GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TREES. Common sense regulatory measures like state, regional, national, and international environmental laws protecting workers, prohibiting toxics, and controlling pollution, among others, will be nullified by the FTAA. The FTAA will provide legal avenues for the timber industries to expand their operations to previously unlogged areas with less regulations and no accountability. The FTAA is a direct threat to the ability of forest communities to decide how to utilize and protect local forest ecosystems.

JOIN US!

In a day of protest and nonviolent direct action against the explosion of multinational corporate globalization that threatens our world's forest ecosystems with unregulated logging practices, increases demand for forest products, and continues deforestation on a global scale.

JOIN US!

As forest protection groups around the world work in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Quebec City during the days of action during the Summit of the Americas against the FTAA: a thoroughly undemocratic body meeting behind closed doors, make sweeping hemispheric economic policies that will affect international forests, and, in the end, all of us.

JOIN US!

In resisting the FTAA's disastrous effect on global forest ecosystems. The FTAA would prioritize the free flow of goods, services, and products across international borders, without a thought for workers, indigenous peoples, and forest communities.

SIGN ON:

Sign your organization on and join the growing international resistance, which will only continue to grow after the days of action on April 19/20th. Contact the following NFN representatives (Northern and Southern Hemispheres respectively.) and let us know what you are planning for an action. The idea is to see who is working where, and then come together to share information and resources, network, educate our forest communities about the FTAA, and make connections within the international forest protection community for the long term campaign against globalization, including the FTAA's, effects on native forest ecosystems.

GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING TOOLS AVAILABLE THROUGH ACERCA - (ACTION FOR COMMUNITY AND ECOLOGY IN THE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA):

IN-DEPTH FTAA ANALYSIS AND ACTION PACKETS INCLUDED!

For more info please contact:

Northern Hemisphere
NFN-ENA
Jason Ford, Northern Forest Campaigner
POB 57
Burlington, VT 05402
(802) 863 -- 0571 fax (802) 864-8203
nfnena@sover.net

Southern Hemisphere
NFN Tasmania
Adam Burling, Representative
PO Box 433
Huonville 7109
Australia
Ph. (03) 62664654
aburling@nfn.org.au
www.nfn.org.au