Brazil has failed miserably in its global responsibility to protect the Amazon rainforest - the lungs of the planet. The unprecedented loss of old growth forest is a catastrophe of global proportion. Between 1978 and 1996, more than 12.5 percent of the vast, irreplaceable rainforest has been destroyed, according to the report. These figures are particularly embarrassing to Brazil, and elements of the government stonewalled releasing the data.
Brazil is most at fault, but consumers and governments around the world have a role to play.
Despite the Brazilian government's claim that the main cause of the destruction is the clearing of land to create grazing pastures for livestock, recent independent studies cite industrial logging as the culprit. Americans purchase these products as plywood and mahogany. Pulped old growth rainforests go into toilet paper and cellulose products, including rayon, camera film and cigarette filters. RAN has challenged companies like Home Depot to stop the sales of rainforest woods, and other old growth woods. RAN and other groups are calling for an international ban on the continued logging and destruction of the world's remaining old growth forests.