{"id":4939,"date":"2015-05-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-prod.greenpeace.org\/usa\/issues-6\/"},"modified":"2024-11-20T11:05:40","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:05:40","slug":"issues","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/forests\/issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Forests Issues & Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s driving deforestation and degradation of critical ecosystems?<\/span>
The world\u2019s natural forests and other critical ecosystems like grasslands are hanging on by a thread \u2014 they are of critical importance to the world\u2019s climate, food supply, species habitat, and Indigenous Peoples. In places like Indonesia, central Africa, and the Amazon, forests are being cleared to make room for livestock, replaced by mono-crop plantations like soy and palm oil, exploited for timber, and withering from the impacts of climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s driving deforestation and degradation of critical ecosystems?<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s natural forests and other ecosystems like grasslands are of critical importance to the world\u2019s climate, food supply, species habitat, and Indigenous Peoples. In places like Indonesia, central Africa, and the Amazon, forests are being cleared to make room for livestock, replaced by mono-crop plantations like soy and palm oil, and exploited for timber.<\/p>\n

Half of the world\u2019s forests have already disappeared, and only 20 percent of what remains is intact. As it stands, the world loses more than 23 million acres of forest area every year. The window of opportunity to reverse deforestation and protect the world\u2019s remaining intact forests is shrinking \u2014 and fast.<\/p>\n

Not only does this have huge consequences for the climate and for wildlife, but it\u2019s also a major human rights concern: some 1.2 to 1.7 billion people<\/a> worldwide depend on forests for the livelihood. That\u2019s why Greenpeace is campaigning to expose the companies that profit off of degrading and destroying forests, and the governments that turn a blind eye, bringing us closer to a deforestation-free future.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Driving Deforestation?<\/h2>\n

The causes of deforestation vary from region to region but have one important thing in common: us. Human activity is behind all major causes of forest destruction \u2014 whether its to support the industries that make products we use every day or by clearing land to grow our food.<\/p>\n

Here are just some of the ways business-as-usual is contributing to deforestation.<\/p>\n

Agribusiness<\/h3>\n

Agribusiness \u2014 in which huge areas of forest are burned or cleared to make space for crops and livestock \u2014 is the number one driver of deforestation. These practices are turning some of the most biodiverse areas in the world into monocultures.<\/p>\n

Read more about how agribusiness drives deforestation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Illegal Logging<\/h3>\n

Illegal logging is an immense, multi-billion dollar industry threatening forests worldwide. Some research even suggests that illegal activities make up more than 10 percent of the global timber trade, representing more than $150 billion per year.<\/p>\n

Read more about the global threat of illegal logging.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pulp, Paper and Disposable Packaging<\/h3>\n

Logging for pulp and paper production can have a tremendous impact on our global forests; from driving deforestation in tropical forests, to degrading huge swaths of temperate and boreal forests. While there are examples of more responsible pulp and paper production that can be found around the world, especially in North America, too often newsprint, book paper, writing paper, tissue and paper packaging is coming at the cost of our healthy forests globally.<\/p>\n

Read more about how paper products of all types are harming our forests, wildlife and our climate.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mining<\/h3>\n

Coal and oil extraction have permanently destroyed large swathes of some of the world\u2019s most important forests. In Canada\u2019s tar sands region, millions of acres of wildlife habitat have been disrupted, with millions more on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

Mining for metals like gold, copper, aluminum and increasingly lithium and cobalt not only requires clearing forests and other native ecosystems, it also contaminates the land and water.
\nIn the Amazon, illegal mining is a growing threat that is leading to forest loss and contamination of key river systems.<\/p>\n

Roads<\/b><\/h3>\n

Building roads through forests fragments the landscape and endangers wildlife habitat, making it easier for illegal loggers to exploit the forest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s driving deforestation and degradation of critical ecosystems?The world\u2019s natural forests and other critical ecosystems like grasslands are hanging on by a thread \u2014 they are of critical importance to the world\u2019s climate, food supply, species habitat, and Indigenous Peoples. In places like Indonesia, central Africa, and the Amazon, forests are being cleared to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":4940,"parent":1267,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_hide_page_title_checkbox":"","p4_title":"","p4_subtitle":"","p4_description":"","background_image_id":"","background_image":"","p4_button_title":"","p4_button_link":"","p4_button_link_checkbox":"","p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4939","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forests-campaign"],"yoast_head":"\nForests Issues & Threats - Greenpeace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/forests\/issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forests Issues & Threats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What’s driving deforestation and degradation of critical ecosystems?The world\u2019s natural forests and other critical ecosystems like grasslands are hanging on by a thread \u2014 they are of critical importance to the world\u2019s climate, food supply, species habitat, and Indigenous Peoples. 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