An increasing number of people depend on healthy forests for sustenance and climate stability is endangering these trees. Deforestation and climate change pose threats that threaten their survival.
Governments and companies from around the world have pledged their efforts to reduce deforestation. But is their effort having any tangible results?
Increased awareness
Advocacy campaigns aim to bring about permanent policy changes with positive outcomes, like saving British Columbia forests in Canada’s example above. Unfortunately, many advocacy campaigns don’t achieve their desired results — 34 out of 47 studies we reviewed didn’t measure directly how environmental advocacy affected forest conservation or other measurable results.
Deforestation is a complex issue. Deforestation can be driven by various forces: government policies such as road projects can encourage deforestation; local economic development strategies often necessitate clearing away forest to make way for industrial agriculture; global market pressure on commodities like palm oil and soy is another driver that leads to land clearing in countries like Indonesia.
No matter the challenges to forest ecosystems, opportunities exist for change. Consumers play an integral role in helping save forests if we act together; one important way we can do so is by supporting Indigenous and traditional forest communities, amplifying their voices, educating friends, family, and our wider communities on living a forest-friendly lifestyle; this might include supporting sustainable food choices like buying products made with recycled or responsibly-sourced wood, cutting down single-use plastic consumption and demanding companies adopt forest-friendly policies.
Consume more vegetables and less meat to reduce demand for cattle ranching that clears rainforests in tropical regions, or push for zero-deforestation commitments from agricultural producers that increase responsibility and incentives to conserve forests within their supply chains as well as their own forests.
However, it should be remembered that short-term changes alone won’t stop the rapid and dangerous depletion of natural systems. We require more comprehensive approaches in order to create lasting transformation. One option could include declaring a state of emergency to stop industrial expansion as well as dismantle harmful public subsidies that encourage deforestation.
Increased political will
People are becoming more aware of how deforestation affects our planet, prompting many to want to take action against it. One key insight we know is that many frontline communities living in tropical rainforests rely heavily on forests for food, medicine and building materials – they feel the effects directly while having little say over how their land is managed by governments or corporations.
Advocate campaigns must go beyond raising awareness; they should lead to lasting policy changes that make a real difference on the ground. That is why more research focusing on measuring specific outcomes of forest advocacy campaigns (case-control studies comparing areas where campaigning occurred with control areas) is needed.
Waswanipi Cree community from northern Quebec, Canada is an example of an environmental advocacy campaign which appears to have resulted in permanent policy change and forest conservation – however this type of campaign may not be commonplace and it’s difficult to know whether environmental advocacy campaigns deliver lasting, concrete results.
NGOs that run global market campaigns on behalf of corporations and governments typically measure the outcome of their campaigns against their broad goals: stopping deforestation, climate change mitigation and protecting human rights. But these NGOs also recognize that activism isn’t a silver bullet; rather it requires careful political analysis, working with legitimate local actors as well as being adaptive when barriers emerge.
Remind politicians that how governmental funds are spent ultimately rests with them; listen to your constituents! Call, email, or attend public meetings and tell your elected representatives you support investing in low-carbon development agendas that honor indigenous rights while prioritizing business policies that encourage sustainable sourcing and forest-friendly supply chains.
Make an impactful difference by decreasing your consumption of single-use products, choosing food made from sustainably produced and responsibly-sourced ingredients, and investing in recycled wood products. But the greatest impact lies in voting with your dollar by boycotting corporations who don’t care for our planet and voting with your dollar instead!
Increased funding
Forests provide homes to numerous plants and animals that exist nowhere else on Earth, yet deforestation, the permanent loss of forests, is one of the greatest threats to nature today. Deforestation causes climate change, soil erosion and biodiversity loss as well as lessened crops yields, flooding issues, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, as well as various social issues for people and communities living nearby.
Deforestation is driven by demand for agricultural commodities like palm oil, beef, soy and pulp and paper. Unfortunately, until recently many companies failed to take steps necessary to stop their supply chains from contributing to forest destruction. But in 2010, several groundbreaking initiatives committed themselves to supporting only deforestation-free commodity chains by making an unprecedented pledge that has since seen many more companies join this initiative.
Although it can be challenging to evaluate whether awareness campaigns are making a positive difference for nature and people, most of the 34 articles we examined for our report used perception-based case studies (supported by documents or literature), expert opinions or perception-based case studies as measures of impact; rather than more rigorous methods such as controlled experiments comparing outcomes in areas exposed to campaigns with those not. Even rigorous research related to Zero Deforestation Commitments was limited in scope and used indirect measures only.
NGO campaigns that engage corporations and governments globally in global market campaigns claim they measure success not just by stopping deforestation but also improving social issues such as alleviating poverty or protecting Indigenous people’s rights. Rainforest Action Network claims its campaign against Indonesian forestry giant APP led to resolution of land disputes as an example.
To protect forests and natural resources, the world can take several small steps, such as avoiding single-use plastics, purchasing recycled paper products and choosing food grown sustainably or purchasing wood from certified sustainable sources. But the single most essential step we can all take to help is supporting organizations working to save them by contributing either financially or volunteering – acting together creates a movement of global citizens who value our planet and all lives that depend on it.
Increased pressure on companies
Though governments and corporations alike have made pledges to curb deforestation, global forest cover continues to shrink despite these pledges, leading to ecological harm for our planet and people reliant on its biodiversity.
As environmental awareness and rainforest destruction grows, companies are under mounting customer pressure to become more sustainable. One factor driving this is when some make significant pledges against deforestation in their supply chains – yet it is yet unclear if such pledges are actually making an impactful difference in real terms.
Tourism, automotive and consumer goods companies often report feeling pressure to act due to Greenpeace campaigns. One example includes the world’s largest paper producer APP who, following a major Greenpeace campaign, changed its policy by switching only using timber sourced from plantations-grown sources going forward, helping both save rainforests as well as indigenous communities that depend on them.
But NGOs must find ways to maintain momentum for these campaigns, so I suggest we conduct more research on how effective advocacy campaigns are at creating lasting change. I recommend conducting rigorous, independent studies as foundations and supporters who fund NGOs expect results.
Unfortunately, research on boycott campaigns to date is extremely limited and little evidence exists regarding their effectiveness at changing company commitments to protecting forests. This piece of the puzzle is of critical importance as these NGOs rely heavily on boycott campaigns as one tool in reaching their goals.
The Great Bear Rainforest case study emphasizes the need for improved research into these campaigns. When companies are exposed for wrongdoing, their immediate focus may be to reduce negative publicity by announcing a new sustainability policy or joining voluntary initiatives to keep forests standing; yet once pressure subsides it’s easy for them to return to old practices.
