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"It's a sad day for the Earth when environmentalists sign agreements with MacMillian Bloedel promoting the logging of the old growth forests in B.C.'s Clayoquot Sound," states Steve Lawson, a First Nations Environmental Network (FNEN) representative from Clayoquot.

Greenpeace, Sierra Club, Western Wilderness Committee and the National resources Defense Council (U.S. based) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MacMillian Bloedel promising to help market the old growth lumber overseas in exchange for protection of some pristine areas.

This is the second time this has occurred in Clayoquot. In 1989, Sierra Club's Vicki Husband signed away Torino Creek to MacMillian Bloedel's "state of the art" logging. Today the area is devastated with clear-cut.

While it is good to establish more protected areas, it is unacceptable that these are created by sacrificing other old growth forests. Local residents are upset by this development, most of whom were never consulted nor informed of this development. FNEN members are also offended by the actions of these environmental groups.

The First Nations Environmental Network is a national organization of grassroots First Nations groups and individuals who work to preserve Mother Earth. A number of FNEN members have been on the front lines in Clayoquot for over two decades and were involved in the drafting of the original telegram that sparked the controversy and they also served prison terms for peacefully blockading the logging of old growth. They are outraged with these outside groups "selling-out" what people have fought so long to protect.

"It is well known that timber giants MacBlo and Interfor hold nothing but money sacred. They want a foot in the closing door of Clayoquot and old-growth forests," explains Lawson who feels they were close to protecting all of Clayoquot Sound. It is an effort to get old-growth eco-certified for world-wide markets and these environmental groups have now become multinational marketing tools. As the international pulp markets are being replaced by alternatives, MacBlo wants to high-grade the ancient cedar. 70% of Vancouver island's original forest has already been cut and the largest area left is in Clayoquot. It is also the second largest area left in North America.

"The environmental movement needs to take a good hard look at itself and stop rationalizing the logging of this precious heritage. It needs to remember it's heart and put it in the right place. It is unacceptable to use Clayoquot in this way... this is a microcosm of a bigger crisis in the forest globally...what happens here will affect forests all over the world," concluded Lawson.