20 Oct 2005

Greenpeace blockades British ministry in PNG timber protest

1:34 pm on 20 October 2005

The campaign group Greenpeace has dumped a tonne of Papua New Guinea plywood outside the headquarters of the British ministry for the environment in London.

Greenpeace says the timber was logged illegally in Papua New Guinea, turned into plywood in China, and was being used on British building sites.

It says illegally logged timber from Rimbunan Hijau, and other companies, can be found as plywood at Wolseley Build Centres and other builders' merchants throughout Britain.

Volunteers used a crane to place over a tonne of plywood - secured with large chains - right outside the door of the Department for Environment in London.

Campaigners chained themselves to the timber, but police used boltcutters to remove the two activists, and they were released without charge.