US-based Rainforest Action Network "Save the Rainforest — Boycott Mitsubishi" campaign coordinator MICHAEL MARX updates the case against Mitsubishi Corporation. Here in Australia, plans are afoot for a new round of demonstrations to keep the pressure on Mitsubishi.
In 1989, the world rainforest movement called for a boycott of Mitsubishi Corporation because of its role in logging the forests of Sarawak, Malaysia. Four years later, the full extent of Mitsubishi's worldwide forest destruction is finally becoming known.
Mitsubishi, in combination with its subsidiary Meiwa Trading Co., may well be the greatest corporate threat to the world's tropical, temperate and boreal forests.
Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Bank and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are the dominant members of the largest corporate family in the world. They are all involved in the timber trade industry. Mitsubishi Corporation structures the deals. Mitsubishi Bank finances them. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries supplies equipment for logging, processing and shipping the timber.
Other Mitsubishi companies are destroying forests as well. They include: Mitsubishi Paper Mills, Mitsubishi Oil, Mitsubishi Mining and Cement and BishiMetals Inc. Forest destruction is a family affair for Mitsubishi.
In 1991, Mitsubishi and Meiwa Trading combined to be the second largest importer of tropical timber into Japan. Mitsubishi now has had operations in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. It is believed that Mitsubishi has also purchased timber originating from Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Mitsubishi Corporation is active in South America as well. It has operations in the Brazilian Amazon and Chile, where it is the largest exporter of wood chips to Japan. It also has one of the largest timber operations in Bolivia.
In 1991, Mitsubishi imported about 10% of Japan's annual imports of lumber from Siberia. It is also a member of the giant K-S Industries consortium, involved in a $1.4 billion project to develop Siberian timber resources. Mitsubishi and Hyundai of Korea created a joint venture (M&H Corp) which imported silver fir into Japan from Siberia in 1991. This operation was endangering the last 200 Siberian tigers until court action blocked the spread of the operation.
In Canada, Mitsubishi is behind the giant ALPAC project, which controls 70,000 square kilometres of boreal forest in Alberta. It owns Crestbrook Forest Industries, which is being sued by Canada for transfer pricing. It owns the Canadian Chopstick Manufacturing Company in British Columbia, where it wastes 85% of the timber it cuts. It is a major buyer of old growth logs and sawn wood. Mitsubishi Corporation's Canadian subsidiary exported 3 million board feet of wood to Japan last year.
Mitsubishi Corporation has been consistently one of the largest importers of whole logs and sawn wood from the United States in the last 30 years. Mitsubishi companies also held controlling shares in Alaska Pulp Co., which was logging the rainforests of Tongass National Forest until its contract was cancelled in April for a breach of the terms of agreement.
In three years, Mitsubishi executives have refused to meet with environmental leaders. The company has sent hundreds of thousands of carefully worded letters defending its logging activities. It blames poverty as the real cause of rainforest destruction. It even produced a comic book for Japanese high schools denying environmentalists' claims. The Japan Ministry of Education recalled it as "propaganda for a single company". Mitsubishi Corporation has ignored criticism of its operations in the temperate and boreal zones.
Groups in Europe, Australia, Asia and North America are joining forces against Mitsubishi. They are sending letters, protesting at auto shows, picketing Mitsubishi car and electronics dealers, bannering freeways and engaging in direct actions against Mitsubishi headquarters.
They are getting results. Major contracts have been cancelled in Europe. The largest electronics dealership in the US dropped Mitsubishi products.
The campaign against Mitsubishi is coordinated by the Rainforest Action Network in the US. For information about the campaign in Australia, contact Brent Hoare, Rainforest Information Centre, PO Box 368, Lismore NSW 2480, ph (066) 218 505, fax (066) 222 339.