Solutions to Deforestation

Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide

Find out which brands are good and which are bad for the Earth and its forests.
View and download the guide
Read our blog post about the problem with using forests for disposable tissues
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Forests for Climate Proposal

Forests for Climate is a groundbreaking Greenpeace proposal to protect tropical forests through an innovative international fund. From the Congo to the Amazon, Forests for Climate provides a practical way to conserve tropical forests to stop global warming while protecting indigenous peoples and life on Earth. The mechanism would become part of the second phase (post-2012) of the Kyoto agreement on climate change.

In the race to fight global warming, time is of the essence. Tropical deforestation is responsible for about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than all the cars, trucks, planes, boats and trains in the world combined. This devastating deforestation is not only a huge threat to our climate: it is devastating wildlife while impoverishing indigenous peoples and local communities, as well.

If countries commit to Forests for Climate, funding to protect tropical forests could become available as soon as 2009. Cutting emissions from deforestation in half would take only an estimated $10 to $15 billion per year from the international community. Forests for Climate has the potential to raise far more than that in a balanced, responsible way.
Read more about Forests for Climate
Forests for Climate brochure (2nd edition)
Forests for Climate technical report

Protecting Endangered Forests

Endangered Forests are unique, intact or ecological critical forests found in ecosystems around the world. Greenpeace and other environmental organizations developed a set of common criteria used to define Endangered Forests. The Endangered Forest definition is most commonly used by companies or governments in purchasing policies designed to prevent ancient forest destruction.

Greenpeace will continue to pressure corporations that make products from ancient and Endangered Forests. Right now Greenpeace is pressuring Kimberly-Clark, parent company to Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, and other brands, to protect Endangered Forests in the North American Boreal. We are asking Kimberly-Clark to develop a global sourcing policy that would increase its use of recycled fiber, FSC certified wood, and would prevent sourcing from Endangered Forests.
Read the Endangered Forests technical definition

Credible Forest Certification

The wood products we use should come from forests that have been managed in an ecologically and socially responsible manner. The best means for determining whether wood products come from such forests is to look for the FSC label. FSC, the Forest Stewardship Council, is an international non-profit association that issues certificates for well-managed forests.

Greenpeace is a founding member of the FSC and is active in its development at the international, national, and regional levels.

FSC wood comes from forests that have been audited for good management practices so that we will have high quality wood products for the future. The FSC structure is built upon the principles of participation, democracy and equity.

The idea behind the FSC is simple: bring together representatives from environmental, social and business communities to work together on appropriate standards for managing forests to ensure that logging is carried out according to the best available science and with the highest regard for the ecological, social and cultural well-being of the region.
Forest Stewardship Council website
Holding the Line with FSC report
Read a report comparing forest certification schemes

CITES

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is a voluntary international agreement designed to protect rare plants and animals from exploitation through international trade.

Each year the trade in wildlife is worth billions of dollars, providing an incentive for high volume trade that threatens the existence of many commercially valuable timber species. National governments agree to implement domestic legislation when they join other parties in support of the convention. There are over 33,000 plant and animal species listed for various levels of CITES protection.
For more information, visit the CITES Web site

Lacey Act

The Lacey Act amendment, passed in spring of 2008 as part of the Farm Bill, gives the United States the authority to prosecute importers of illegally sourced wood. The amendment expands the scope of the 100-year old Lacey Act, which has successfully protected wildlife by preventing the illegal trafficking of animals.

While the chief aim of the new law is to make illegal logging operations less profitable, it has the potential to save more than just the millions of acres of forest that are cut down every year by loggers operating outside of the law. Illegal logging operations devastate entire local ecologies, for instance, harming not just the animals who call the forests home but also the nearby communities. Illegal logging also hurts U.S. businesses, who lose an estimated $1 billion every year to the illicit foreign competition. Perhaps worst of all, illegal logging contributes to global warming by producing massive amounts of carbon emissions.
Read more about the Lacey Act
Frequently Asked Questions about the Lacey Act