Environmental Activists Chain Selves to Cranes of Lumber Ship : Protest: Unloading of plywood from Indonesian rain forests is blocked temporarily. Demonstrators agree to leave ship and be cited for misdemeanor trespassing.

Six environmental activists, protesting logging of the world’s rain forests, handcuffed themselves Tuesday to cranes on a South Korean freighter docked in Long Beach and for several hours kept workers from unloading plywood from Indonesia.

The activists from Greenpeace, Earth First! and the Rainforest Action Network boarded the ship at about 7 a.m. They ended their protest shortly before 1 p.m. when authorities agreed to cite them only for misdemeanor trespassing. The maximum penalty is a six-month jail sentence and $500 fine.

More than 50 confederates greeted the ship squatters with cheers and hugs when they left the ship.

“We really got the message out that the import of tropical timber has to be stopped,” said Jim Flynn, 32, of Portland, Ore., a member of Earth First! and one of six activists cited. The activists singled out the movie industry, which they said consumes huge amounts of plywood to build movie sets.

Flynn said he had handcuffed himself to a cable atop one of the ship’s four large cranes.

But Richard Newman, president of Portland-based Plywood Tropics, contends that the blockade of the Sammi Superstars was badly timed publicity. Nearly 50 nations, including the United States and Indonesia, already have agreed to a program of sustainable logging, in which trees are harvested and replanted in equal numbers.

“It’s a real surprise that someone would come at this issue at this time,” said Newman, whose company--one of the nation’s largest importers of Indonesian plywood--had wares on the Sammi Superstars. “Everyone’s working very hard and getting our hands on this situation--much more than we are a lot of the other environmental problems.”

Indonesia is the No. 2 producer of plywood in the world, after the United States, said Tom Fast, director of international operations for the American Plywood Assn. The United States produced 21.5 million cubic meters of plywood in 1991. In contrast, 898,000 cubic meters of plywood was imported to the United States from Indonesia the same year. However, that number is increasing, as other nations ban tropical hardwood imports.

Although the activists claimed success Tuesday in getting their message across, they failed in their efforts to persuade Pan Ocean Shipping Co., the South Korean firm that owns the freighter, to refuse to move additional loads of lumber that are harvested from tropical rain forests.

“We have no choice. We have to carry the plywood,” said Pan Ocean manager Brian I. Y. Choi. “This is a steamship line.”

Dockworkers began unloading 4,200 tons of plywood, which will be sold in the Los Angeles area, Choi said. The ship is expected to leave the Port of Long Beach Thursday and will drop off another 12,000 tons of plywood from Indonesia at other U.S. ports, Choi said.

Eleven activists boarded small inflatable boats and motored Tuesday morning to Dock F, where the Sammi Superstars was moored. They climbed up a steel ladder at the side of the dock and then walked unmolested up a gangplank and onto the ship.

Six of the activists climbed up and locked themselves to the ship’s cranes. Two others dangled from ropes on the side of the ship beside a banner that read, “Stop tropical timber imports.” Three other activists played supporting roles and were soon escorted off the ship without incident, authorities said.

Harbor officials, police and firefighters milled around beside the ship trying to figure out how to get the activists ashore peacefully.

Earth First! spokesman Jake Jagoff said the protesters decided to leave the ship after authorities implied that they would face arrest and more serious charges.