Greenpeace

Today we announce news that at first blush is not good--we have found areas in the Amazon rainforest that have been deforested to grow soy in violation of the Soy Moratorium Greenpeace helped create in 2006.

The good news is that the coalition of traders have agreed not to allow any of this soy to enter their supply chain and plan to revoke the funding of the farmers who broke the agreement. This is big news. Since we found soy growing in newly deforested areas for the first time this year, it was a test for the moratorium and the commitment of our coalition parters in the Soy Working Group to make sure that this soy did not make its way into the mouths of consumers. For more information read on because I've included a blog sent to me today from Paulo the Director of our Amazon work in Brazil.

- Lindsey 

Today the soya trading companies operating in Brazil - this includes giants such as Cargill, Bunge, ADM, Dreyfuss, Amaggi and others - will announce that the monitoring of the current soya crop (2008-2009) found soya planted where it shouldn't be: in areas deforested in the Amazon after July 2006. This is the date when the soya industry announced a moratorium for buying soya coming from newly deforested areas in the Amazon – a direct result of a strong campaign led by Greenpeace and soya European consumers, including McDonalds and its allies.

The good news is that the volume of soya resulting in deforestation is pretty small and traders will finally enforce their promises of not buying soya from farmers who disrespected the moratorium. Additionally, traders will cut credits of these farmers or others who challenge the moratorium – the soya traders fund large part of the Brazilian soya production.

Last year, the monitoring found new deforestation in the surroundings of traditional soya farms but didn't find soya planted in those areas (only rice which is not part of the moratorium). It has been pretty easy and comfortable for traders to claim that they are respecting an agreement which was not welcomed by farmers – in fact, it was imposed to them. Now, we are happy to see the trading companies making good on their promises to protect the world’s largest tropical rainforest!

This decision of the traders shows that companies can really play a fundamental role in fighting deforestation and join the global effort to stop climate change.

cheers,
paulo

Greenpeace and  Kimberly-Clark have announced the successful resolution of the Kleercut campaign as the maker of Kleenex has established a new sustainability policy focused on protecting Endangered Forests. Go to www.greenpeace.org/kleercut to find out more!

Each year Kimberly-Clark hosts a shareholder meeting full of Execs, Boardmembers, and key investors in Dallas.  Given this is the company's most important meeting of the year we have a few things up our sleeve to remind Kimberly-Clark that destroying ancient forests doesn't pay.  From now until the shareholder meeting on April 30th keep an eye out for all the ways you can help us convince Kimberly-Clark that it is time to stop wiping away ancient forests for Kleenex!

In February we released the Greenpeace Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide and the story traveled the globe in The New York Times, The Guardian, The International Herald Tribune, and hundreds of other media outlets.

One of the questions that I was asked time and again was Do my tissue and toilet paper purchases really make a difference?

The answer is YES, but don't take my word for it.  Here is what is in your box of Kleenex...