(October 27, 2020) — Half the Earth’s forests are now gone. 15 BILLION trees are chopped down every year — 476 every single second. That’s our rainforests, jungles, and woodlands being decimated to make space for ever more cattle, palm oil, and soybeans. But today we have a unique opportunity to change it.
Right now the European Union is considering a new law to ban any products linked to deforestation. If the law passes, the EU is such a massive market that it could force the world’s biggest companies to change, transforming the global supply chain, and helping to save our woodlands, wetlands, and mangroves. Earth needs this law — so let’s make sure it passes!
This is not a usual petition. You’ll be signing an official EU consultation. Every voice counts. Every signature builds the resolve of lawmakers to pass the most ambitious forest-protecting law possible. Let’s be deafening.
Deforestation was serious a decade ago — now it’s a planetary emergency. Forests provide our oxygen, they protect the climate, and are home to 80% of land-based life. And yet they’re being totally destroyed.
But now we could finally have a law to save the trees!
This new bill could ban the sale of forest-killing products across the EU, cutting the huge profits made from the destruction of woodlands, rainforests, and trees that have stood for centuries, and setting a global precedent.
So let’s win it! For the jungles, the jaguars, the orangutans, the gorillas, and millions of people who live in the world’s forests — and for every time you’ve ever looked up at a tree in wonder — let’s flood the official European Commission consultation with a tsunami of global support, for the strongest possible law to ban all products linked to deforestation.
ACTION: Click to add your voice and forward to everyone you can:
Add your name to the official consultation now.
Together our movement has led the race to save Earth’s precious forests. From standing with Amazon communities fighting to protect their home from illegal cattle ranchers, to crowdfunding the purchase of a rainforest in Indonesia — now let’s come together again, and help break the consumer supply chain that’s destroying that last forests on Earth.
With fierce hope and determination,
Spyro, Mike, Nana K, Nick, Martyna, Anneke, Adela, Luis and the whole team at Avaaz
MORE INFORMATION
• The Together4Forests campaign
https://together4forests.eu/
• Biggest food brands ‘failing goals to banish palm oil deforestation’ (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/17/biggest-food-brands-failing-goals-to-banish-palm-oil-deforestation
• Nestle, P&G say they will miss 2020 deforestation goals (Reuters)
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-consumer-goods-deforestation/nestle-pg-say-they-will-miss-2020-deforestation-goals-idUKKBN1WC1WC
• Earth Lost Half Its Trees to Humans (Live Science)
https://www.livescience.com/52070-global-tree-census-human-impacts.html
• Tackling tropical deforestation: The need for EU leadership (Euractiv)
https://www.euractiv.com/section/biomass/opinion/tackling-tropical-deforestation-the-need-for-eu-leadership/
• Planting Trees Is Good. Eliminating Deforestation Is Better (Mother Jones)
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/08/planting-trees-is-good-eliminating-deforestation-is-better/
Avaaz is a 60-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decision-making. (“Avaaz” means “voice” or “song” in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz’s biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
