Blog: Forests

Brian Baring, a member of the Gingilang clan, hails from Papua New Guinea and has been involved in protecting the country's ancient forests for some time. His clan have been custodians of the land for thousands of years and are now legally the customary landowners.

Of China, Napoleon once said to let it sleep. When it wakes, he warned, the world will tremble. It will have escaped no one's attention that that time has almost certainly come, and as China grows in virtually every measurable way, so does its appetite for raw materials including timber.

Click on the map to see details of each region

We are destroying the world's precious ancient forests at an unprecedented rate. An area of natural forest the size of a soccer pitch is cut down every two seconds.

Greenpeace protesters unfurl a massive banner in an area of illegally cleared Amazon rainforest - the farmer's car is parked in the middle

Deep in the Amazon forest, Greenpeace protesters clashed with the man responsible for a major 'forest crime' - the destruction of a vast area of pristine forest.