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Lulu John, Warume Sakas and Aebi Sakas bring home food and medicine gathered from the forest at Elie, Middle Fly District, PNG.
Enlarge imageEvery year around the world, seven million hectares of ancient forest
are cleared or severely degraded. That's the equivalent of 20 soccer
fields a minute. The Paradise Forests of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
are being
destroyed faster than any other forest on the planet.
There are several reasons for this astounding level of destruction in the Paradise Forests:
Illegal logging is by far the main reason the Paradise Forests are disappearing.
Logging is illegal when the timber is harvested, processed, transported, brought or sold in violation of national laws. Laws can be violated at many different stages of the supply chain such as:
Losing the Paradise Forests doesn't just devastate the people and creatures living there. It also impacts on the rest of us. Forests help stabilise the world's climate, so continued loss of the Paradise Forests will affect us all. Rivers will dry up, rainfall patterns will be disrupted and the global climate will change even more rapidly than it is now.
Inside the forest live millions of indigenous people representing thousands of unique cultures. As the forest is cut down, they are losing their food and water sources, and the heart of their cultural and spiritual lives. Some of the world’s most rare and endangered animals and plants shelter in the Paradise Forests, like the last orang-utans left in the wild. As their habitats are destroyed, many face extinction.
There are several reasons for this astounding level of destruction in the Paradise Forests:
- illegal and destructive logging
- resulting forests fires, like those which burned uncontrolled in Indonesia in 1997-1998
- land clearing for oil palm plantations and agriculture
Illegal logging is by far the main reason the Paradise Forests are disappearing.
What is illegal logging?
Logging is illegal when the timber is harvested, processed, transported, brought or sold in violation of national laws. Laws can be violated at many different stages of the supply chain such as:
- illegally obtaining logging concessions (by corruption and bribery or without lawful consent)
- violating export bans
- cutting protected tree species or taking them from a protected area
- taking out more trees than allowed, cutting down undersized or oversized trees, or logging outside a permitted area
- Lying to customs about the amount of timber taken or the species
- Using fraudulent documents to smuggle timber internationally
The impacts of a disappearing forest
Losing the Paradise Forests doesn't just devastate the people and creatures living there. It also impacts on the rest of us. Forests help stabilise the world's climate, so continued loss of the Paradise Forests will affect us all. Rivers will dry up, rainfall patterns will be disrupted and the global climate will change even more rapidly than it is now.
Inside the forest live millions of indigenous people representing thousands of unique cultures. As the forest is cut down, they are losing their food and water sources, and the heart of their cultural and spiritual lives. Some of the world’s most rare and endangered animals and plants shelter in the Paradise Forests, like the last orang-utans left in the wild. As their habitats are destroyed, many face extinction.
