Dam Home Depot, Save Patagonia's Rivers - International Rivers Resource Hub

23.04.2009

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Read about International Rivers’ Action at The Home Depot’s Annual Shareholder Meeting: Press Release, Media Kit

The Home Depot is the largest US buyer of timber products from the Matte Group, one of the companies planning to build five big dams on two pristine rivers in Patagonia, southern Chile. The dams and their associated transmission lines would ruin rivers, flood rare endangered forests and destroy livelihoods.

Why The Home Depot? Every year The Home Depot purchases 50 million dollars worth of timber products from the Matte and Angelini groups – owners of wood products companies CMPC and Arauco – which together control the main Chilean owner of the dam consortium called HidroAysén. The Home Depot claims that it works to protect Chilean native forests, but the dams and their transmission lines would require clearcutting and flooding of untouched temperate rainforests of a type found nowhere else on the planet.

Patagonia Campaign supporters have sent thousands of emails and postcards asking Home Depot to stop buying timber from suppliers that plan to destroy the rivers and forests of Chile’s Patagonia. International Rivers is also working closely with leading US Socially Responsible Investment firms to encourage The Home Depot to conduct business in a socially and environmentally responsible manner and discontinue their support for companies involved in HidroAysén.

However, The Home Depot continues to drag their feet on this issue, ignoring the demands of their customers, their shareholders and the environmental community. Although the company is at risk of ruining their reputation as a leader in environmental responsibility, The Home Depot is attempting to downplay the influence they could have on the Patagonia dams scheme. We’re calling on The Home Depot to protect Patagonia and stop buying timber products from the Matte and Angelini groups.