11th December 2004

Infoletter for all activists and ngo:s who have signed the petition for Global Banon GM trees

Global Ban on GM trees going to Buenos Aires

1.Campaign brochure published
2.Contacting the media
3.GM Tree Watch Network
4.Seeking the alternatives - a new workshop
5.The future of the campaign
6.Press release for immediate distribution

Dear friends,

We have now very good news about this campaign. The number of signatures has been rapidly growing during last weeks. Actually specially in South America the petition is now moving rapidly on!

We can now go to Buenos Aires to present the petition with support of 2701 individual and 287 ngo´s!

Warm thanks for all of you! I hope to see someone of you in Buenos Aires next week.

1.Campaign brochure published
The petition and our demands is presented in the campaign brochure, eight pages poster collection, and we are to spread 1000 copies of it for the UN Kyoto meeting in Buenos Aires during the next week.

Warm thanks for professor of silviculture mr Erkki Lahde who´s studies on alternative silvicultural methods is also presented in one of these posters.

By his studies this common industrial clearcutting-plantation model in Boreal forestry appears to be far less productive and sustains far smaller carbon storage than these alternative organic silvicultural practises.

You can freely load and print them for noncommercial use in this adress:
http://video.elonmerkki.net/forestforum/uk/posters/

We hope that during the next week these posters could also be seen on many public places in many other countries than Argentina.

If you want to support the campaign and share the printing and travelling costs you can also order ten copies of that brochure by 20 euro´s
supportive fee. There is the need for at least 2000 euro´s sum to cover these last costs of this campaign. Please contact: mikko.vartiainen (at) nic.fi.

2.Contacting the media
There is an urgend need to get the threat of GM trees for public
discussion around the world. In the end of this message there is the press release for distribution.
Could you take part in this action and just send it to some newspapers or tv-stations and radiostations in your country?

Or could you gather together the e-mail adresses of the main newspapers and radio- and tv- stations in your country, and/or the environmentally orientated media contacts?

There is soon coming some videoreports to be presented and we need help to get information about contacts for publicating that.

Do you know some channel/program to whom we could contact in your country?

3.GM Trees Watch Network
The campaign has started to collect the information about GM tree projects in differents countries. We hav opened a monitoring site for activist This workshop site is not yet public. If you have some information and/ or want to cooperate with us from your country, please send a message to: forestforum(AT)video.elonmerkki.net There are now about thirty national campaigner and groups cooperating with this GM tree monitoring network. You are welcome to join in.

5. The future of the campaign
To continue, this campaign needs urgently co-coordinators, specially
people who can speak also french or spain to deal with the communication.

Personally I cannot continue as the one and only coordinator of this
campaign next year and also it would be good to find more deeper
cooperation between ngo:s taking part in the campaign.

If you or your organisation is interested to join in coordinating team, pleace contact us.

We shall arrange an Internet meeting to discuss about the future in the beginning of next year.

Warm thanks also for our web master Ville Aho (ville (at) kulma.net) who has designed the dynamic Internet solutions for the campaign.

6. Press release for distribution
Here, in the end, is this press release and we hope that supporting activists and ngo:s would modifiy/translate/distribute it for the media in your country

In solidarity

Hannu Hyvönen
organic farmer and forest campaigner
Finland