Stopping Deforestation
How new laws鈥攁nd consumers鈥攃an help save Earth鈥檚 trees
- Etelle Higonnet
- Conservation
- Jun 09, 2022
Orangutans in Sumatra (above) are losing habitat as trees are felled for palm oil. In Brazil (below), clearing land for ranching and crops is devastating the Amazon.
A FEW YEARS AGO, my heart broke as I watched a of an orangutan in Indonesia confront a giant logging machine as it cut through the animal’s forest home. With men yelling and the engine roaring, the orangutan slowly moved away through a tangled web of branches.
Across the globe, deforestation for development, timber, cattle ranching and commodity crops—including palm oil, soy, cocoa, coffee and rubber—has taken a grim toll on wildlife habitat, the climate and Indigenous ways of life. Sadly, examples abound.
A 2018 study in found that more than 100,000 were lost between 1999 and 2015, primarily due to deforestation. Since 1960, of forest cover in Côte d’Ivoire has been lost, mainly due to cocoa production, more than 20 percent of which occurs illegally and in protected areas. And some 17 percent of the Amazon’s tropical forests—home to some of Earth’s greatest biodiversity—has been lost in the last 50 years, primarily to cattle ranching.
Trees filter water and absorb carbon, so when trees vanish, Earth’s climate suffers. According to a from the , tropical forest deforestation ranks third—only behind China and the United States—as a source of carbon emissions.
Recognizing that global deforestation is fueled largely by consumer demand for commodities, U.S. lawmakers are proposing bipartisan action to address the crisis. Congress is now considering the , which would restrict products from illegally deforested land from entering U.S. markets. and legislatures are also considering “deforestation-free procurement” acts that would do the same. All three bills would also help protect Indigenous peoples, whose ancestral forest lands are grabbed for commodity production.
“皇冠体育app官网平台n consumers are unknowingly driving this destruction,” says Hawai‘i , author of the FOREST Act. “Our bill will help put an end to that.” agrees: “Tropical and boreal deforestation—driven by our consumer choices—is creating ecological and social crises on a global scale that we cannot ignore. ... That’s why [we need] to ensure that the products we buy are not contributing to the loss of Earth’s most vital ecosystems.” Such laws—with support from individual consumers—can help heal the Earth.
is a knight in France’s National Order of Merit for helping shape that country’s zero-deforestation strategy.
