Saving Forest

Ancient forests are the greatest celebration of three billion years of evolutionary life on earth. They contain literally millions of different types of flora and fauna - from owls to orchids, bears to beetles. Even more species are yet to be discovered. But many species will not survive without large intact areas of ancient forests. Incredible as it seems, those irreplaceable habitats are being cut down to make cheap paper and wood products such as phone books, milk cartons, chopsticks. Huge volumes of one time use plywood, much of it used for disposable concrete moulds, comes from ancient forests. Yet most of this destruction is unnecessary. If we used wood and paper more efficiently consumer demand could be met from well-managed secondary forests, plantations, recycling and non-wood alternative sources such as hemp. One of the major factors behind forest fires in the tropical rainforests of Indonesia and the Amazon is the opening up of ancient forest frontiers by industrial logging that is often subsidised. Indonesian forestry experts estimate that plantation firms using fire to clear land illegally are responsible for up to 80% of the August 1999 fires in Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo. Widespread fires in tropical rainforests decrease biodiversity and impoverish local communities. They also contribute to the carbon emissions that cause global warming, while the smoke and haze impair the health of millions of people. Conservative estimates put the damage of the Indonesian forest fires plus the ‘haze’ at more than US$4.4 billion, for 1997/98 alone. This figure does not even include loss of life, damage to health, malnutrition due to crop destruction or biodiversity depletion. To protect the earth’s last remaining tracts of ancient forest from destruction -through a moratorium on industrial developments in ancient forests until appropriately large areas of ancient forest reserves have been established. 

Ancient forests provide the world with clean, fresh water, support as much as 90% of the earth's land-based species, and play a critical role in shaping the world's climate. Yet every two seconds a forest zone the size of a soccer pitch is logged or burned.