Amazon under threat
Greenpeace is running its biggest ever global campaign to protect the Brazilian Amazon rainforest from illegal and destructive logging and to promote sustainable alternatives.
The Amazon rainforest is one of the biologically richest areas in the world containing more than one-third of the world's remaining ancient forests and supporting up to 50% of the planet's land-based animal and plant species. It is also home to thousands of communities who rely on the forest for survival.
However, illegal and destructive logging is slowly destroying this unique tropical rainforest. Already an area the size of France has been destroyed (about 1/7th of the total) with an area half the size of Belgium disappearing annually.
According to the Washington based World Resource Institue (WRI) nearly 80% of the earth's original ancient forests have either been destroyed or degraded. The remainder is disappearing at the rate of 10 million hectares every year - an area the size of a football field, every two seconds.
To secure the long-term protection of the Amazon rainforest from illegal and destructive logging, 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 rubber tapping in extractive reserves.
- Proper legal demarcation of all indigenous lands
