deforestation

Burning forests to clear land for agriculture releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases

As our understanding of the role forests play in stabilising global climate increases, it is becoming clear that their destruction is only exacerbating climate change. If we're serious about tackling this, then preserving our remaining ancient forests has to be a priority.

Stretching right across South East Asia, from Sumatra and Borneo to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Paradise Forests form a wonderfully diverse region.

The FSC logo is the best guarantee that wood and paper products come from well-managed sources

With so much timber on the market that is destructively or illegally logged, it's important to have a certification system that can assess the logging industry's impact in forestry areas on both the environment and the communities who live there.

As the largest remaining rainforest on the globe, the Amazon rainforest is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. It is vast, stretching across 7.8 million km2, 5 per cent of the Earth's surface and several South American countries. However, over 60 per cent lies within Brazil's borders, and it's here that we're focusing our efforts to protect this rainforest.

Huge areas of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared for soya plantations

As the human population and our consumption of resources grow, more and more land is being turned over to agricultural production. This is at the expense of natural habitats such as mangroves, wetlands and, of course, ancient forests. In particular, it's the growing importance of soya beans and palm oil as global commodities are key drivers of deforestation.

Ancient forests around the world are in peril, but we can still save them. Governments and the timber industry need to understand what a crucial role they play in maintaining global biodiversity, not to mention how vital they are in regulating the climate, so they need to act now.

And as consumers, we can all help to save the forests. Making sure that the wood and paper we buy has come from well-managed sources (or, even better, is 100 per cent recycled) is something we can all easily do.

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.

Ancient forests around the world are at risk from a range of man-made threats including destructive and illegal logging, agriculture and climate change. Unchecked, these will destroy the last remaining forests, possibly within our lifetimes. But there are ways we can avert the crisis and preserve what remains of these fragile landscapes.