Political solutions

An international political solution

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Greenpeace activists expose a forest crime scene in the Amazon, Brazil, in 2005.

To end deforestation globally, the international community must urgently agree on a mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in developing countries - where most of the world's remaining ancient forests are found.

Greenpeace is lobbying for an international framework that could do just that. This mechanism or program is known as 'reduced emissions from degradation and deforestation' (REDD).

We are campaigning for massive funding to be made available to developing countries to increase their capacities to manage and monitor their forests to protect the global climate, as well as to develop economic alternatives to tropical forest destruction.

But forests are more than carbon stores; they are home to a wide variety of life. Any deal must also safeguard biodiversity and the integrity of natural forests, including the protection of and respect for indigenous peoples' rights.

A good REDD deal would quickly (and relatively cheaply) reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect biodiversity and benefit local and indigenous peoples. A bad deal would allow corporations to keep destroying forests whilst claiming to protect them and would exclude forest communities from discussions that will directly affect their lives.

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Kumi Naidoo (Greenpeace) and representatives of Indonesian civil society at the Dialogue on Moratorium, REDD and Roadmap to Zero Deforestation, Indonesia.

Any international forest protection programs need to be enforced on a national level, in both producer and consumer countries.

Producer countries need the resources to rigorously monitor and enforce forest protection on the ground, as well as the political will to embrace transparency. Greenpeace is working with civil society on the ground in several countries - from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Indonesia - to this end.

Consumer countries must recognise that demand from their markets is fuelling this environmental disaster, and ensure their forest products can be traced to non-destructive sources. Greenpeace works to investigate, document and expose the chain of destruction that allows ancient rainforest products to end up on our supermarket shelves.

Victory! Illegal timber is banned in the EU

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In July 2010, after a ten year Greenpeace campaign, Europe banned the trade in illegal timber - a great leap forward in the struggle to protect the world's forests and climate. This is a look back at the ten years of activism that led to that law.