Greenpeace Jaguars on Motorbikes Block Argentine Forest Clearing

POZO DEL TUME, Salta, Argentina, August 29, 2005 (ENS) - Greenpeace activists on motorbikes today stopped two bulldozers from clearing trees to expand genetically engineered soy bean fields into the remains of the Great American Chaco Forest.

Four Greenpeace activists dressed as jaguars, on motorbikes painted with jaguar spots, blocked the big machines. Four more activists in two helicopters painted as jaguars filmed the forest destruction from the air.

A campaign action team, the Greenpeace Jaguars are activists on motorbikes who aim to stop bulldozers from destroying forest lands in Salta, Argentina that shelter rare wild jaguars.

Greenpeace Jaguar mounted on a motorbike is intent on protecting the Argentine forests for the remaining wild jaguars. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace Argentina)

The Greenpeace helicopter was surveying the area when the bulldozers were seen in the province of Salta, 1,800 kilometers north of Buenos Aires. On the ground the Greenpeace Jaguars got to the area in time to confront the bulldozers and stop them.

"It is outrageous that such devastation continues to take place at such a fast rate only because companies want to feed pigs in Europe or chickens in China," said Rex Weyler, early Greenpeace activist, from Vancouver, Canada, who took part in the action.

"Unless something gets done immediately the world will see the large forest areas in South America disappear in a very short period of time. The international community should call on the Argentinean government now to stop this disaster," Wyler said.

Bulldozers are clearing the forests of South America at what Greenpeace calls "an alarming rate." In Argentina areas of forest the size of a soccer pitch disappear every three minutes.

Small farmers and indigenous communities are forcibly evicted from their land by "GE soya landlords" supported by the government of Argentina, Greenpeace said. "All the trees knocked down by bulldozers are discarded onto huge piles, often kilometers long, and set alight."

The cleared land can only support genetically engineered soy fields for a few years before the soil nutrients disappear, the campaign group points out. The options then are to use more chemicals or just leave the land to become a desert and move on to clear more forest.

Greenpeace Argentina forest campaigner Emiliano Ezcurra (Photo courtesy Greenpeace Argentina)

Ramón Ferriera, who lives in the Great Chaco forest, said, "They force us to leave our land, often with guns. Then they come with these powerful machines, knock down all the trees, burn them and plant soya. We see no economic benefit from such great destruction and we lose all we have."

The Yungas Rainforest and the Great Chaco forest are two neighboring ecosystems. They are rich in biodiversity and wildlife, such as rare jaguars. but they are being destroyed at one of the fastest rates in the world.

Jobs and wealth are not incompatible with keeping forest diversity, clean air and water, Ezcurra emphasizes. Large forest areas can be managed sustainably through good forest practices like Forest Stewardship Council certification, for instance.

The Greenpeace Jaguars first acted to stop bulldozing of the Chaco Forest in July 2004 when five activists climbed onto bulldozers and used chains to lock them up of several days. Bulldozer operators stopped their operations and attempted to hide their equipment to avoid the motorbiking activists. The blockade was accompanied by a telephone campaign to Argentine embassies around the world demanding a moratorium on deforestation of Argentina.

"We're here to stop these jaguar forests being destroyed and the land turned into a genetically engineered soya desert," Ezcurra said from the Yungas forest in July 2004.

"In Argentina, 75 percent of our native forests have already disappeared, and every hour the equivalent of 20 football pitches (soccer fields, for you North Americans) of forest is destroyed to grow transgenic soya," Ezcurra said. "The damage is irreversible, it is almost impossible to grow forest on the soil again - and today an area the size of Germany is at risk."