[March 12, 2006] Greenpeace rues key nations' absence Tweet (Gulf News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Manila: Greenpeace said yesterday it was disappointed with the absence of representatives from key countries, both suppliers and consumers, from a "critical forum" in Manila on illegal logging. The international environment activist group said representatives from Papua New Guinea, which has one of the world's most critically endangered forests, and Japan and China, two key importer countries, failed to attend the East Asia and Pacific Forest Law and Governance meeting in Manila. "Despite some very limited progress, the meeting was seriously hampered by the non-attendance of some critical countries," said Greenpeace international forest campaigner Stephen Campbell. He said the three countries were signatories of the Bali Declaration of September 23, 2001 "but were absent from this critical forum". When these countries fail to show up it is "very hard for us to take their commitment to the [law enforcement] process seriously", added Campbell. - With additional inputs from Jose Reinares [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]