§ Ms Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent, North)In the final minutes before Parliament closes for the summer recess, and on the day when the Environmental Audit Committee has published its report on timber and the Government have published their response to the Select Committee report on preparations for the world summit on sustainable development, I am pleased to present this petition from Stephen Tindale on behalf of Greenpeace.
It is vital that our Prime Minister leads the way at the world summit in Johannesburg next month. We wish him well. The petition declares:
that since the Rio Earth Summit ten years ago an area of ancient forest bigger than France or Spain has disappeared; that today we are losing an area of ancient forest the size of a football pitch every two seconds; that as this destruction continues thousands of plants, animals and indigenous communities will be put at risk; and that 49,000 individuals have contacted the Prime Minister expressing their concern about the destruction of ancient forests and asking him to take action to save them.The petitioner therefore requests that the House of Commons urge the Prime Minister to push for strong international action to end the trade in illegal and destructively logged timber.
§ To lie upon the Table.