Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Phone the President, Demand Forest Law

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 2 2009 (IPS) - The Argentine chapter of Greenpeace is urging the public to telephone President Cristina Fernández to ask for her speedy enactment of the native forests law that was passed 14 months ago. “We are registering 1,000 calls per day and we will continue until we achieve our goal,” Gonzalo Strano, a Greenpeace activist, told Tierramérica.

Calls can be made from any telephone, but the environmental watchdog group has set up sites in Argentina's principal cities with an enormous red telephone and booth — which have attracted long lines of people.

Greenpeace pressed for the law and contributed to drafting it. The group also collected 1.5 million signatures. Now it is demanding the enactment of the law to preserve forests that are being degraded by the expansion of farming.