Activists block ship carrying newsprint

The Hague, Netherlands: Greenpeace activists yesterday used inflatable boats to prevent a cargo ship from unloading what they claimed was newsprint paper made from trees felled in Canadian forests.

The environmentalists said they were preventing the ship Finnwood from unloading its cargo at Terneuzen port, 215km south of Amsterdam, and were daubing a slogan on its side calling for newspapers not to use paper made from old established forests.

The group said 10 activists had clambered onto the 170-metre ship and were hanging in front of its unloading doors to prevent the paper being unloaded. Another 10 protesters were in rubber boats circling the ship.

"Each year, companies in Canada clear more than 700,000 hectares of forest," said Greenpeace Netherlands campaign leader Hilde Stroot. "Huge areas of forest are being destroyed for newspapers, books and toilet tissue." Stroot added that the Canadian forests were home to threatened species such as the lynx, wolf and caribou.

"We will stay there as long as possible," she said, but added that police were arriving at the dock.

Greenpeace said the paper on board the ship was from Canadian forest products company Abitibi-Consolidated LLC and is used by all of the Netherlands' major newspaper publishers. Abitibi did not immediately return an after hours call to its head office in Montreal.

The company's website said that its newsprint is made of up to 100 per cent recycled paper.