Boycotts news - EC103 November /December 2006

This section includes info on new boycotts, successes and updates about ongoing campaigns from the current issue of Ethical Consumer.

Boycott News Archive (from May 2006)

Boycott Merbau wood
Flooring brands Junckers, Tarkett and Kahrs are the targets of a new boycott because they have yet to drop their ranges of merbau flooring. The Environmental Investigation Agency’s (EIA) 2006 report “Behind the Veneer” detailed how flooring manufacturers and retailers were selling products made from merbau wood of dubious and “probably illegal” origin.

Although a lot of retailers have stopped selling merbau flooring since the report’s publication, Kahrs and Tarkett have refused to provide evidence to prove the legal source of their merbau while Junkers continues to use Indonesian merbau despite confirming that it is of unknown source. Without guarantees of the woods origin, it’s likely that merbau wood flooring could have come from Indonesia’s last remaining rainforests.

“If sales of stolen timber in places like Europe are not halted, Papua’s forests will meet the same fate as those elsewhere in Indonesia,” said Arbi Valentinus, Vice President of the EIA’s Indonesian partner, Telapak. “Widespread deforestation will bring devastating floods and death and deprivation for poor forest dependent people.”

The EIA and Telapak call consumers to boycott merbau products from the brand name companies until they have cleaned up their act. Call 0207 354 7960 or visit www.eia-international.org for more information.

Boycott Wildlife Souvenirs
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is hoping to persuade holiday-makers to stop buying wild animal trinkets when on holiday. According to IFAW, millions of tourists travel to destinations in the hope of wildlife encounters, only to come home with souvenirs made from the very animals they went on holiday to see. Threatened species such as elephants, rhinos, leopards and turtles, are being slaughtered, often illegally, in order to feed a growing souvenir trade. IFAW has launched an international awareness campaign hoping to make travellers “Think Twice” and boycott wild animal trinkets. UK’s Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) has come out in support of the campaign, while celebrity supporters include Twiggy and Sir David Jason. IFAW’s UK Director, Robbie Marshland says, “tourists need to remember if they don’t buy, animals won’t die”.

Items to avoid include:

• Handbags, shoes and belts made from reptile skins as it’s hard to tell just by the skin whether or not the species is endangered;
• “Tortoiseshell” products. Although international trade in marine turtles is illegal, tortoiseshell products are still widely available in tourist resorts worldwide;
• Seahorses - sold as traditional medicine, souvenirs and as curios;
• Coral jewellery;
• Sharks’ teeth fashioned into pendants or mounted jaws. More than 100 million sharks are killed each year. The trade in shark souvenirs is pushing threatened species closer to extinction.
• Big Cat skins. According to IFAW, the market for big cat coats, bags, rugs and other trophies continues and warns travellers to remember that the skins belong to the big cats - and not to us!
• Elephant ivory. Poaching remains rampant in order to supply the huge demand for ivory products. These products include jewellery, chopsticks, hair slides and ornaments. It’s illegal to bring ivory home.