Greenpeace is taking a group of European authors to northern Finland to bear witness to ancient forests that are being destroyed to make pulp and paper for the international market (1). The authors are Niccolo Ammaniti (Italy), Javier Moro (Spain), Ken Finn (U.K.), Karel Verleyen (Belgium), Aur‚lie Filipetti (France) Robin Valtiala (Finland) and Lydia Rood (The Netherlands).

As part of the Greenpeace's Book Campaign, the authors are acting as ambassadors for the protection of the worlds' last ancient forests and have pledged to print their next books on 'ancient forest friendly' paper.

I cannot keep wondering how much pulp of paper has my book swallowed, how many trees have been logged, how much destruction of natural habitat has my modest endeavour caused , says Javier Moro. It is our duty as writers to protect our books from being accomplices in nature's holocaust.

The authors will tour of some of Finland's most threatened areas of ancient forests in northern Laplnad, situated some 300 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. They will visit important reindeer forest areas - vital to the livelihood of the indigenous Sami reindeer herders - which have recently been logged by the Finnish State logging company, Mets_õhallitus.

The group will also visit the Forest Rescue Station, established byGreenpeace in March, in one of the Sami reindeer forest areas, to highlight the role of Mets_õhallitus and paper companies that are buying paper from the area. Since the Rescue Station was set up, the Xerox Corporation (USA) has committed to stop buying copy paper sourced from ancient forests in the Sami region.

The Finnish logging industry is writing the last chapter in the demise of Europe last ancient forests said Judy Rodrigues. It is time for the publishing industry to turn the page on ancient forest destruction and instead lead the paper industry towards 'ancient forest friendly' solutions.