forests

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.

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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.

As President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil paid a visit to Buckingham Palace today, the Greenpeace forest football squad were there to remind him that the world has a vested interest in the future of the Amazon rainforest.

In the remote forests of Papau New Guinea, illegal and destructive logging continues to threaten both the local communities and the fragile ecosystem. But today Greenpeace launched a major initiative to help indigenous tribes establish their rights to the land they have occupied for generations.

Just one week after the excellent news about the Great Bear Rainforest comes another stunning victory with the announcement that a huge area of the Amazon rainforest will be protected from destructive logging.

On 12 February 2005, Sister Dorothy Strang was assassinated for defending the rights of rural workers in the Amazon. For more than 30 years, she had campaigned against the human rights abuses and environmental degradation that continue to plague Pará State as the interests of the forest-dwelling communities are disregarded in favour of land-grabbers, ranchers and loggers.

It's rare that success comes on such a scale so this is one worth celebrating. The provincial government of British Columbia in Canada has announced the protection of 2 million hectares of ancient forest with strict ecological management for the rest.