More than 70 Japanese companies have canceled transactions with a Canadian logging company suspected of damaging the ecosystem in the country's temperate rain forests, according to Greenpeace in Japan.
The environmental group said it sent out questionnaires to 240 Japanese firms that directly or indirectly buy forest products from International Forests Products Ltd. (Interfor) and found more than 70 of them have terminated contracts with the firm.
According to Greenpeace, Interfor has threatened the habitats of salmon and bald eagles by clear-cutting forests.
Canadian and U.S. scientists have urged the Canadian government to stop commercial logging in the forests, the group said.
As of 1998, transactions between Interfor and Japanese companies accounted for 22 percent of the Canadian firm's entire overseas sales.
Among the Japanese companies canceling transactions are confectionery maker Fujiya Co., department store chain Izutsuya Co., and Toyo Exterior Co. -- which sells such products as fences, gates and gardening goods -- and their affiliates.
These companies used Interfor's forest products for shopping bags and gardening products.
Trading house Mitsubishi Corp. also said it will stop buying forest products that are "not deemed as sustainable," according to the group.