As an international organisation, we can campaign to protect forests in two key ways. Firstly, we take action by investigating the scene of the crime in places like Indonesia and the Amazon, where destructive and illegal logging is taking place. Secondly, by exposing those responsible for destruction, we take action in consumer countries like the UK that are creating a demand for cheap wood and agricultural products.
The Amazon rainforest
The Amazon rainforest is the largest in the world and a major biodiversity hotspot. While a number of factors threaten its survival, in recent years soya farming has become a leading cause of forest destruction. Thousands of square miles have been illegally cleared to make way for immense plantations, with the soya grown there being exported to feed to livestock in the UK and Europe.
We are working in Brazil to prevent further deforestation by challenging the multinational companies that export soya from the Amazon. Meanwhile, with your help we are working with European supermarkets and fast food companies to ensure that any soya they use does not come from newly deforested areas.
The Congo rainforest of central Africa
The second largest rainforest lies in the Congo basin of central Africa where millions of people depend on the forest for their survival. But efforts to ease poverty in the region by encouraging the timber industry is failing - endemic corruption means money from taxes paid by the logging companies never reach forest communities and they are being conned into allowing access to valuable timber in exchange for a few measly gifts of beer and soap.
The Paradise Forests of South East Asia
Our work in the Paradise Forests, which stretch across South East Asia, is focused on exposing the unscrupulous logging practices of large timber companies who have destroyed vast areas of forest in their search for high-value timber. We've been collaborating with local tribes and clans, who are the traditional landowners, to protect their lands, and have also documented how the illegal timber reaches the UK via the timber mills of China in the form of plywood.
The Boreal Forest of Canada
It isn't just tropical rainforests that are in danger. The temperate Boreal forests in Canada are a refuge for large mammals such as caribou, wolves and grizzly bears. Here, logging is legal but is still being carried out in a way that destroys the surrounding forest. We are putting pressure on paper manufacturers to stop destroying these pristine areas, including Kimberly-Clark, who use timber from old-growth forests to make, of all things, tissue and toilet paper.
Europe and Russia
Although few areas of ancient forest remain in Europe, some vestiges still exist in Finland and Russia. However, these areas are also under threat from unsustainable forestry. In Russia, illegal logging is rife and we have exposed how this black market timber makes its way into Europe. Meanwhile across the border in Finland, the government has done little to protect the areas of ancient forest under its jurisdiction and as a result they are being logged to the point of extinction.
The Book Campaign
One area of business that uses a significant amount of paper is the publishing industry. As part of our Book Campaign, we've been working with publishers in the UK and abroad to change their business practices so they use more paper that is either recycled or certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and an increasing number of books in the bestseller lists are going forest friendly.
But none of this is possible without your support. Find out more about what action you can take to help save the remaining ancient forests and donate now so we can continue to expose forest crimes on an international scale.
