A coalition of environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth and the Rainforest Foundation, warn logging threatens the survival of gorillas, chimpanzees, the jaguar, ocelot and many rare birds, including thee toco toucan and the hyacint macaw. Forest communities, like the Brazilian Indians and the Solomon Islanders, are at risk and there is shocking damage to the environment through flooding, soil erosion and fire. Millions of hectares of forest are being lost to fire in Indonesia. Some of the worst blazes raged through northern Brazil last year, exacerbating the climate change.
Tropical rainforests are some of the world's most precious ecosystems with a vast number of species.
But commercial logging is the biggest threat to the ecology of these forests and leads to further colonisation and agricultural activities, say campaigners. The environmental campaign groups say government inertia and hollow promises made by the timber industry have failed to control unsustainable logging, and without radical changes there are limited prospects that they will do so. The full environmental and social costs of logging are not reflected in the market price of wood products. Governments show no political will to regulate the industry effectively, while the industry is heavily involved in bribery, corruption and political violence around the world from Brazil to Cambodia, says the report. Much of the world's tropical wood products are produced from illegal sources.