Petition Tag - deforestation

Many species of geckos are at risk of extinction because humans around the world are using them for medicine and food delicacies, smuggling them for the pet trade, and destroying their habitat by deforestation.

The environment will be affected as their disappearance will upset the ecological balance.

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An Open Letter to His Excellency, President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, President of South Africa and the African National Congress

Dear Msholozi, Dr Zuma,

I want to draw your attention to the current state of our nation's indigenous forests. Our national trees, the giant “yellowwoods” of South Africa, are all but gone. You can still see yellowwoods along the highway in the Tsitsikamma forests and even stop to see the "Tsitsikamma Big Tree", but these trees are just remnants of the impressive old-growth forest patches that once existed along our coastline and in our mountains. In just two generations we have forgotten what these forests even looked like and accepted how they appear today.

The one thing that most developed countries will not have in 50 years time is wilderness and intact indigenous habitat. A socio-economic truth in Africa is that we have the most untapped natural and human resources on Earth. Now is the time to guard this competitive edge carefully and make sure that we use our natural resources sustainably, while preserve our beautiful natural heritage. This is Africa’s century and we need to make sure that we have something to show for it in one hundred years time. Our forests, grasslands, wetlands, beaches and bushveld are the next generation of South African’s most important asset.

In 1994, the new ANC government inherited a policy of sustainable timber harvesting in indigenous forests from a government focused on self-sufficiency during the Apartheid years. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) has never had the specific mandate to restore our national forests. Indigenous forest management on government land has been underfunded after the privatization of most commercially viable plantations and forests. The truth is we are not doing enough to protect and restore our national forests and hundreds of villages, towns and cities depend on goods and services from these threatened forests. I would like to propose that it officially becomes the responsibility of every South African to rebuild our national forests, while government (DAFF) oversees, facilitates, licenses, co-funds and supports non-profit NGOs and local cooperatives that plant indigenous trees with local communities and develop new green enterprises. Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) programs like Working for Water and Working for Fire would benefit hugely from independently-funded non-profit NGOs and community-run cooperatives planting millions of indigenous trees in areas where invasive trees like Australian wattle are currently being removed. We need to repurpose the role played by both DAFF and DEA in indigenous forest management to atone for the catastrophic damage done to our national forests by previous regimes and colonial powers. Healthy indigenous forests are a direct reflection of the moral and social development of a country.

In 1652, Jan Van Riebeeck described the forests of t’Houtbaaijten (Hout Bay, Cape Town) as "the best in the world" and then proceeded to cut down all the yellowwoods in this secluded bay to build fortifications. This forest is still gone. Many other forests disappeared in the centuries to follow as more settlers and migrants arrived to build colonies using indigenous timber felled by European “wood-cutters”, government foresters and Xhosa pit-sawyers. Just 350 years ago there were hundreds of thousands more large, tall yellowwood trees dominating the high canopy of an archipelago of Afromontane and southern Afrotemperate yellowwood forest patches along the south coast of South Africa from George to Humansdorp, up through the Eastern Cape, Transkei, and southern Drakensberg, and all the way north to Magoesbaskloof in the Limpopo Province.

According to local Xhosa people living along the Amathole Mountains, yellowwood trees have been widely exploited for over one hundred years and the older people have seen the forests decline and disappear in their lifetimes. For many years the Tribal Authorities in the old Ciskei had forest guards under a mandate to sell yellowwood trees to timber companies. Corrupt officials horded all earnings and did not share with local villages. Older people remember the yellowwood trees, the Umkhoba and Umcheya, as the “government trees” that were guarded jealously from local communities by forest guards. They call the forest guards the “forest police” that only looked out for the yellowwoods. In 1994, these local communities started cutting down and selling large yellowwood trees as a symbol of freedom after the repressive Tribal Authorities had been abandoned as part of our new democracy. DAFF got this quickly under control, but today the local communities still complain about rampant illegal logging by “people from other parts of the Eastern Cape”. We need to break down this culture of exploitation and the association of yellowwood trees with “gold and money”. I am sure you, Mr President, will agree that our natural heritage is worth far more.

There is a shocking example in the harvesting records compiled by DAFF in King William’s Town for the period April 1994 to March 1995. These records account for 81 real yellowwood (Umcheya) and 32 Outeniqua yellowwood (Umkhoba) trees that were harvested from indigenous forest in the Amathole Mountains that year. The DAFF report entitled: “Amathole Forest Yellowwood Harvesting Levels” states that “a number of trees had to be excluded from the analysis due to missing data or discrepancies with the data.” It is notoriously difficult to get raw data on the number and size of yellowwood trees being felled each year. The fishing industry needs constant regulation and management to avoid permanent damage to our fisheries. Why not our forests? We need to overhaul government forestry in South Africa, end the harvesting of our national tree, and invest in the restoration of these important forests. This will be our legacy to future generations.

The core vision of the “Amathole Forest Yellowwood Harvesting Levels” technical report reads: “Forests are managed for people and we need to create an enabling environment for economic and social development through sustainable forestry, especially at the local level”. We, the Wild Bird Trust, are fully supportive of this vision and work with local communities to grow and plant trees in our indigenous forests everyday. This vision is, however, made impossible by the ongoing harvesting of yellowwood trees and events like the felling of over 100 large yellowwoods in one year. Most local people do not benefit from yellowwood timber sales, while the ability of their indigenous forest patches to produce food, poles, building materials, clean water, fuel wood, thatching grass, and medicinal plants has almost irreparably been diminished. If, one day for example, local people want to legally hunt in these forests again, we would need to let our remaining intact forest patches recover for at least two generation. Our national forests need at least 25 years of intensive re-planting and restoration followed by 25 more years of recovery before we can say they are on their way to recovery. By then the 3-5 million indigenous trees will be tall and big. Just imagine large areas of indigenous forest with harvestable timber and no threat of being exploited or destroyed.

For centuries the best furniture, homes, boats and luxury goods were made from shining yellowwood timber. Named for the beauty of its wood, yellowwood adorns our parliament, estate homes, courts, embassies, and old bank buildings. Umkhoba and Umcheya are our national trees. By the late 1800s the demand for yellowwood had worked its way up the coastline past Knysna and Tsitsikamma into the Amathole Mountains and KwaZulu-Natal. Most of this yellowwood timber was used to produce the millions of railway sleepers and mining timbers necessary to sustain an explosive boom in the mining industry. By 1900, we had already decimated most of our yellowwood forests through excessive and wasteful cutting, burning and clearing geared at keeping up with demand. For almost one hundred years we were, in essence, trading gold from the ground beneath us for "gold" from our forests, bringing one up and sending the other down.

All yellowwood trees are now protected. Permits are, however, still active that allow sawmills to harvest yellowwood trees up to their quota every year. Most of trees felled are over 200 years old and irreplaceable. The equivalent of 600 cubic meters of yellowwood timber or anywhere between 20 and 100 large yellowwood trees are felled legally each year in the Amathole region alone. The fact is that, if we continue, legal and illegal logging will very soon destroy our national forests. We have seen more yellowwood tree poaching in the last three years than in previous years and record the loss of important yellowwood trees every year. Some desperate local communities in the Transkei region are burning yellowwood as firewood. Now is the time to protect our golden indigenous forests.

Right now there are harvesting contractors targeting the last-remaining intact yellowwood forest patches, eroding our natural heritage every day that yellowwood extraction continues. Today, only a handful of yellowwood trees over 500-years-old remain scattered in remote, degraded forest patches protected from historical and illegal logging by inaccessibility, proud landowners and local foresters. In King William's Town and Keiskammahoek (Eastern Cape) you can see 200, even 300-year-old yellowwood trees being chopped up at saw mills. Yellowwood planks are now valued at up to R25,000 ($3,000) per cubic meter, an increase in value of over 400% in the last 6 years. This sets a high price for our natural heritage, as legal yellowwood timber is getting harder to source and prices are being driven even higher.

What is incomprehensible about all this is that much of this trade is being done legally. The technical report on the "Yellowwood Harvesting Quotas for the Eastern Cape" allows a quota of 600 cubic meters of yellowwood timber from dead or dying yellowwood trees in the Amathole Mountains each year. Unbelievably every year 50 or more large yellowwood trees are marked for extraction by government foresters. From the perspective of the harvesting contractors with 70-year permits to cut yellowwood trees, the yellowwood harvesting quotas are almost impossible to use, as trees suitable for harvesting are very rare (i.e. dead trees or trees with at leas 75% of the canopy dead). Some people have turned to ring-barking or even poisoning yellowwood trees. For example, we have found evidence yellowwood trees poisoned with diesel to kill them for harvesting the next year. The new government-endorsed yellowwood harvesting protocols actually support the targeting of healthier yellowwood trees than before due to contractors complaining about poor timber quality. The technical report also applies forest biometry theory incorrectly and inappropriate sample plots in unsuitable locations were chosen to justify ongoing harvesting of both yellowwood tree species. These and other inadequacies found in the technical report highlight the need for better training, record-keeping, and auditing of annual yellowwood harvesting quotas. We need external auditors to make sure that healthy yellowwood trees are not being marked and felled.

If you care about our natural heritage, you must institute a zero tolerance, zero harvesting quota as soon as possible. None of the sawmills or harvesting contractors will go bankrupt or lose their jobs, as these businesses depend on blackwood timber to be profitable. Blackwood is an invasive species from Australia with wonderful fine, red wood that is sought after by furniture manufacturers that pay up to R15,000 per cubic meter. Removing blackwood from the Amathole Mountains and other catchments around South Africa helps our indigenous forests, removing large yellowwoods irreversibly harms them.

Legal and illegal harvesting of yellowwoods happens even though these trees are nationally protected. There are now only seven yellowwood trees on the "Declared List of Champion Trees" published by DAFF last year. Names like "Eastern Monarch", “King Edward VIIth Tree” and "Woodville Big Tree" speak to the grandeur of these sentinels that have stood over our forests for up to 2,000 years. We, the Wild Bird Trust, would like to propose the protection and recognition of thousands more culturally, historically and ecologically important trees by establishing the "South African Heritage Tree List". This list will include all protected indigenous trees over 100-years-old throughout South Africa. We protect buildings over 100-years-old. Why do we not do this for trees? We must establish a task team to locate, sample (for DNA finger-printing) and mark all "Heritage Trees" with a presidential seal to protect them from harvesting in the future. “Heritage Trees” will become presidential or “government trees” again, but, this time, for the right reasons.

The Wild Bird Trust volunteers to establish a website for the location and photo of all “Heritage Trees”, so that every South Africans can find these magnificent trees in their area and even report back on their condition or send in a photos. The "South African Heritage Tree List" will have thousands of trees on the register all of which will need to be clearly marked with a presidential seal to avoid being cut down or damaged. We must start being proud of the amazing trees we still have and stop cutting them down. Future generations will thank us and foreign visitors will be impressed. After our “Heritage Trees” have been clearly marked and protected, senior scientists at DAFF must supervise the development of new sustainable harvesting quotas for indigenous trees under 100-years-old.

Vital government-subsidized, community-based tree-planting programs, like the Wild Bird Trust’s "iziKhwenene" Project, the Wildlands Conservation Trust’s Treepeneurs Project, and the work done by Food & Trees for Africa over the last few decades, must be established throughout South Africa in and near all forests and bushveld areas. We must make "indigenous forestry" a viable economic driver for remote rural communities. This could be done through carbon trading, extracting tannins from wattle bark, and even well-funded, long-term tree-planting programs managed by non-profit NGOs. Government, public benefit organisations and local community-run enterprises are going to be the key to rebuilding our national forests.

The restoration of our yellowwood forests in South Africa presents us with a development model that supports natural resource management and enterprise development in poorer provinces like the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. Carbon trading is a huge opportunity, as all yellowwood trees planted cannot ever be felled. With government backing all proudly South African businesses and corporates will support the planting of millions of yellowwoods with disadvantaged rural communities that need jobs. We will build hundreds of small “micro-nurseries” and benefit thousands of people during the restoration of our national forests.

We need your support, as the head of state, and champion of the poor. Old people in the villages near the Amathole Mountains have seen their ancestral forests destroyed and replaced with pine and Australian wattle. We, the Wild Bird Trust, herewith officially ask you to intervene by providing us with the necessary funding to plant the first 1 million yellowwood trees and mark all “Heritage Trees” in South Africa. You must end all further logging of our national tree in South Africa. We do not hunt our national bird, the Blue Crane. We do not unnecessarily cut down our national flower, the protea. In fact, we work very hard to protect these icons. The yellowwood trees that we lose tomorrow, the next day, and the week after that cannot be replaced…

We ask you, as concerned citizens, to recognize officially that our natural heritage is more important than natural resource use, announcing that saving our remaining yellowwood forests as a national priority. These trees knew our ancestors and connect us to the greatest events in our history. A small handful of people have made a lot of money from logging and sawmilling yellowwood trees at a catastrophic cost to the remaining forests. It is safe to say that we now sit with less than 10% of the yellowwood trees we had 350 years ago. Every year we chip away at the remaining trees as the forests slowly shrink. The trees are getting smaller, the forests are getting thinner, and the canopies are getting lower, as exotic trees invade our open spaces and water catchments.

I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss the future of our indigenous forests and our national tree. We are proud of our rich natural heritage here in South Africa and cannot let another yellowwood tree be felled. I am a loyal citizen and servant of the Republic of South Africa and will gladly give of my time to solve this problem. I live in Hogsback Village in the Amathole Mountains, own land there, will raise a family there, and am dedicated to restoring the indigenous forests of our great country. I have wonderful friends at DAFF in King William’s Town and look forward to working more closely with them in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Rutledge S. Boyes
DST/NRF Innovations Postdoctoral Fellow
Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology (University of Cape Town)
Trustee: Wild Bird Trust
Contributing Editor: National Geographic News Watch

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We as Americans are directly causing global warming and animal cruelty everytime we buy something that contains palm oil. This has to stop! Palm oil is used in everything from our breakfast cereals and chocolates to our cosmetics and soon to come, in the gas we use to drive our cars!

Palm oil is also the biggest cause of global warming as forests are cut down to plant more plantations and more than 5 million acres of forests are under the chain saw in South America, Africa and Asia.

We are already starting to see the effects of global warming on American lives. This must be stopped at our borders.

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The Sumatran orangutan society, have been very successful in campaigning to get palm oil labeled in all products who use it. They have recently won their clear labels, not forests campaign and it is now compulsory for all food products containing palm oil to be labeled in Europe and the UK. However this does not cover all products...cosmetics are not included in this campaign but i believe they should be.

The palm oil industry is responsible for destroying thousands of acres of deforestation in other countries. Currently 300 football fields are destroyed in south east Asia every hour for palm oil. And it's not just the vegetation that is being affected! The animals that rely on the forest (such as orangutans) are affected, many orangutans have no place to go when the forest is destroyed. 20 years ago their were more than 300,000 Bornean orangutans in the wild, now their are less than 45,000 in the wild. Orangutans only give birth once in 6 - 10 years therefore it is hard for them to breed as much as they are dying out due to deforestation.

Please go to http://www.wspa.org.uk/wspaswork/orangutans/ for more information on orangutans.

But worst of all the industry does not even label palm oil! Most palm oil is labeled as vegetable oil, therefore many people are unaware that it is in their shopping products. This is taking away our freedom to know what exactly goes into our cosmetics, it takes away are choice of whether or not to use palm oil! This is wrong, they should label palm oil and deliberately point out if it is palm oil free!

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Today palm oil is used in lots of shopping products, some of which includes pears soap, pringles, most peanut butters, clover, ginsters, haribo, Good fellas pizza, warburtons and much more. Unfortunately I wouldn't be mentioning this if it didn't have such an affect on the environment.

The palm oil industry is responsible for destroying thousands of acres of deforestation in other countries. Currently 300 football fields are destroyed in south east Asia every hour for palm oil. And it's not just the vegetation that is being affected! The animals that rely on the forest (such as orangutans) are affected, many orangutans have no place to go when the forest is destroyed. 20 years ago their were more than 300,000 Bornean orangutans in the wild, now their are less than 45,000 in the wild. Orangutans only give birth once in 6 - 10 years therefore it is hard for them to breed as much as they are dying out due to deforestation.

Please go to http://www.wspa.org.uk/wspaswork/orangutans/ for more information on orangutans.

But worst of all the industry does not even label palm oil! Most palm oil is labeled as vegetable oil, therefore many people are unaware that it is in their food. This is taking away our freedom to know what exactly goes into our food, it takes away are choice of whether or not to eat palm oil! This is wrong, they should label palm oil and deliberately point out if it is palm oil free!

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Orangutans are caged, bound and brutalised, and exposed to degrading and inhumane conditions after having their homes ripped away from underneath them. Others are mindlessly slaughtered as illegal loggers destroy their habitat.

These creatures have the intelligence and sensitivity to think and feel and understand what is happening to them, to grieve for their homes and loved ones, to feel fear, hopelessness, confusion and despair. Please help them.

DeforestACTION, via Taking It Global, are aiming to rescue these animals and provide a safe home for them, restoring areas of barren and degraded land and working with the Indonesian Government to preserve what is left of their forest. They will involve the local people in preserving and protecting these animals and their natural habitat.

Please add your name and email address to the Taking It Global database to show your support for these animals. By adding your name you are agreeing to Taking It Global's terms of use. We can then also update you on the progress that the deforestACTION team is making in securing new homes for those fortunate enough to be rescued from their dreadful conditions. As individuals they are suffering appallingly, but as a species they are gravely close to extinction. When the forests are restored, many of these animals will be rehabilitated and released back into the wilds of Borneo where they belong.

Therefore, by helping us to provide these individuals with a life worth living, you are also helping to provide a future for their species. These animals are on the verge of extinction, and they are suffering unforgiveably at the hands of humans. They need those of us who are strong enough to acknowledge their plights to speak out on their behalf.

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EVERY HOUR an area the size of 300 football fields of the world's oldest and most valuable forest is lost, along with the animals it homes, many of them critically endangered. Entire ecosystems are being lost at dramatic rates.

The climate is irreversibly damaged by the carbon released through this practice. Much of this logging is illegal.

DeforestACTION is working with governments to put a STOP to this, but we need your support. Please add your name to our growing list of supporters. Stand up and be counted. By adding your name you are joining Taking It Global and DeforestACTION in their fight to stop illegal logging, re-forest areas of degraded land and rehabilitate the Orangutans rescued during this process. Please add your name and pass on to others who might be interested in signing up.

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I am writing about the proposals to build a new town called Cranbrook near where I live. If you do this, millions of animals, birds, insects and even people will lose their homes and livelihoods. I know that it is now far too late to stop the building, but it is not too late to reduce the plans to half the size. This is the flood plains that you are about to build on so your building work will only be destroyed if there is a flood, which there is a high risk of.

This is supposedly to reduce homelessness and to increase the number of people employed, but it will actually destroy more employment by destroying the farmers’ land and the forest where the forest rangers work. If we do need more business jobs, old buildings can be reconstructed and reused wherever possible. As for the homeless issue, I feel that the right way to deal with this would be to reuse old homes wherever possible and to reduce household costs.

Haven’t you ever taken the time to observe and try to understand the beautiful wildlife that live there? The wonders of nature should teach you why it is so important that you reduce the planned area to around half its size. Trees are vital for our survival as they produce life-giving oxygen as well as providing a home to the unique British wildlife.

Unless you at least reduce the planned area, you will never be forgiven by the environmentalists. There may be protests outside the Council houses, letters of hate and disgust, and maybe even economic boycotts of this county. I will not support the Council in any way until you reduce the plans and unless you do so, I for one will never forgive you".

This was how my letter to the Devon County Council read. Unless I get enough signatures here, beautiful innocent wild animals will die.

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The market value of product that results from strip mining sea dunes make it very difficult to not invest in such endeavours. These endeavours are destroying the prettiest parts of our coastline leaving toxic and poisonous remains for who ever is unfortunate enough to be there.

Shareholders and Politicians are the only people who benefit from this short sighted destruction of endangered species habitat in wetlands and quickly disappearing indigenous forest.

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-Deforestation-

Deforestation is becoming increasingly distressing. The accelerating destruction of rainforests is now being recognised as one of the leading cause to global warming. The carbon emissions caused from the destruction of rainforests are much greater than any emissions produced by aeroplanes and factories.
This deforestation is a occurring every single day at an alarming rate of one acre per second.

Due to the deforestation it will mean devastating events occurred from climate change. Including rising sea levels and decreased snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere.

At the rate of all this destruction, the world’s rainforests could completely vanish, in no more than 100 years. The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment. The most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes.

Together we must stop the deforestation to help our Earth and species.

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The only host plant of the monarch butterfly (milkweed) is often a noxious weed in Canada. In the USA there is a loss of biodiverse agriculture and agricultural lands to urban sprawl and use of pesticides and herbicides.

In Mexico there is illegal logging of Oyamel fir trees within the Monarch Butterfly Habitat. In 2009 According to Monarch Watch over 50 percent of the monarchs died due to mudslides, freezing rains and floods within and around the sanctuaries.

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On 28th June 2010 a summary moved from senior member Board of Revenue has been passed by Chief Minister of Sindh province of Pakistan on 3rd July 2010 to convert over 6 laces acres entire Riverine forest land of Sindh on both banks of River Indus. In summery it has been mentioned that it was decided on the directives of President of Pakistan during the meeting held on 22nd June 2010 at President House Naudero Larkana, for distribution in landless female peasants on ownership grounds. So the entire Riverine forest land of Sindh, over 6 laces acres has been converted in Revenue Status.

We know that it is a plan to hand over the forest land to like minded land lords, these land lords particularly close to forest minister Sindh have already submitted female lists mentioning forest names and claimed areas. In these areas remaining forest cover is also claimed. Principally forest land could not be distributed on ownership grounds but only Revenue land could be distributed. So for the Government to accommodate its friends, forest land was converted in Revenue status. This will be handed over in the names of poor women permanently on ownership grounds.

If they imposed such plan then:
• All the Riverine forest land will be converted in state of feudal.
• Due to agriculture cropping activities live stock will not be allowed to graze in the forest area, people will be discouraged of this business. This will be cause of shortage of meat, milk in province.
• There will be migration from Riverine area in significant numbers. Millions of people will be homeless as well as without livelihood with destructive socio economic impact on the people of the Riverine area.
• Remaining forest cover which also included in submitted women reclaim lists will be deforested.
• No single acre will be available to department for any new policy, program or project of forestry.
• After deforestation the remaining wildlife will be vanished from Riverine area.
• due to unplanned installation of tube wells, the under ground water flows which recharge the sweet water pockets in all over Sindh would be deprived off their capability to recharge these pockets. Entire Sindh will face drought of sweet water.
• A great disaster to environment as well as to socio-economic condition.

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The orangutan and its habitat are seriously at risk due to palm oil production - an ingredient in 10% of our supermarket products. As consumers, we cannot make informed and ethical choices on purchases as palm oil is not properly labeled.

Please sign this petition to ask the EU parliament to lead by example and to start to take some action. It is time to to action NOW - before it is too late. Please share this petition with your friends, family and colleagues and on your social networking sites.
Thank you.

Red Alert Orangutan Preservation Campaign
www.primateprotection.org.uk

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Palm oil is a major contributor to global warming. Rain forests are being destroyed by either being burnt or logged to make way for Palm oil crops.

Over 1/2 of the world animal species live in these rain forests. Their homes are getting destroyed and they are DYING all because of this. Companies such as Arnotts, Nestle, Kelloggs and the body shop need to stop using Palm oil or get their Palm oil form a sustainable source.

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Paper products are usually made from wood. But our trees are becoming scarce and thin. Before the industrial revolution trees could be found in thick forests or the occasional wood. Now the demand for paper requires the deaths of thousands of trees daily.

Cotton is not a scarce resource. we can grow it and regrow it in huge fields. The American Dollar is made from cotton. So why not everyday paper? Paper should be made out of cotton to preserve our trees.

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The issue is that we are losing trees at a very fast pace. Without trees we can expect more runoffs of topsoil, the temperature of the earth to change, extinction of animals that rely on tree’s to live, and irregularities in the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen.

Some might think that this won't affect us, but it can/will create a reaction on the earth that will affect other resources in the area. By saving the trees we are creating a better future for ourselves and our future children.

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There has been a dramatic increase in lumber demands due to the rising human population. These demands have led lumber companies to cut down countless acres of forests. Loggers ignore the effects they are causing to the environment in order to keep up production.

In the long term, however, deforestation ravages the land. Erosion increases and habitats are destroyed when forests are not properly maintained. Animals are forced to move into populated areas and are a nuisance to the inhabitants. Trees naturally absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, when they are burned, the trees release the carbon inside of them. Cleaning our atmosphere will become more difficult if tree populations continue to decrease.

Habitat preservation, erosion and pollution are just a few causes of clear cutting.

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Rainforests are still being destroyed at an alarming rate in response to worldwide demand for cheap farming and cheap timber.

Losing the rainforests would be catastrophic, not only do trees play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming, forests also provide habitats to about two-thirds of all species on earth. The FAO (UN Food & Agriculture Organisation) estimates that deforestation of tropical rainforests accounts for the loss of as many as 100 species a day.

If we do not change our course of action, there may not be any rainforests remaining in 50 years time — that’s in your lifetime!

The current rate of clearing is equivalent to losing an average of 20 football pitches every minute. This means that in the last 10 years an area approximately the size of Spain has disappeared!!!

The destruction of the rainforests is also a major factor in global warming. Emissions from deforestation in developing countries represent about 20% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, or about 6 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change.

No new technology is needed to save the rainforests, says the GCP(Global Carbon Project) just the political will and a system of enforcement and incentives that makes the trees worth more to governments and individuals when they are standing than they are when destroyed. Richer nations already recognise the value of uncultivated land. The EU offers €200 (£135) per hectare subsidies for "environmental services" to its farmers to leave their land unused.

This petition has been written by the year 7 students of Cambridge House Community College, Valencia http://www.cambridgehouse.es - they deserve a future. Act now to protect our planet by signing this petition, this will then be sent to the governments of the world.

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A petition to force the United States government to only purchase paper made out of 100% recycled fibers; to reduce energy use, deforestation, landfill overflowage, and waterway pollution (hydrogen peroxide, which is usually used to whiten recycled paper, does not pollute our waterways).

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