Illegal logging continues to be one of the greatest threats to the Amazon – an incredible natural treasure.
The Amazon rainforest is one of the biologically richest areas in the world, containing more than one-third of the earth’s remaining ancient forests and supporting 50 percent of the world’s land-based animal and plant species. Illegal logging, however, continues to be one of the greatest threats to this incredible natural treasure.
According to the Washington-based World Resources Institute, nearly 80 percent of the Earth’s original ancient forests have either been destroyed or degraded. The remainder is disappearing at an alarming rate of 10 million hectares every year. Every two seconds, an area the size of a football field is destroyed.
In the Amazon alone, criminal timber exports have contributed to destroying a section of the forest that is nearly the size of Texas; and each year an area half the size of Maryland disappears.
Greenpeace is calling for:
- Logging only through independently certified operations using such standards as those set by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC);
- Expanding areas of ancient forest used for other ecologically responsible activities, such as extractive reserves;
- Proper demarcation of all indigenous lands; and
- G8 Governments to take immediate action.
The bottom line:
- DO NOT buy illegal forest products. DO buy products from sustainable, certified forests;
- DO NOT fund forest destruction through aid for unsustainable forestry. DO provide urgent assistance to forest countries to tackle illegal logging; and
- DO NOT allow G8 countries to be markets for illegal timber. DO increase the capacity for monitoring, and increase transparency throughout the production and transport of forest products globally
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Read more about the Amazon rainforest here.
