New Science Indicates Selective Logging of Amazon Highly Destructive
Forests.org calls upon mainstream environmental organizations and funders to heed this warning and embrace the goal of ending old-growth logging in all ancient forests

Tomorrow the leading scientific journal "Science" will publish a report that indicates that selective logging is destroying the Amazon rainforest twice as fast as previously thought. A new satellite survey of the Amazon Basin in Brazil using new methods reveals that selective logging destroys an area of pristine rainforest big enough to cover the state of Connecticut every year.
It has long been known that first time selective logging of ancient forests - be it illegal or "certified" - is not sustainable in any meaningful ecological sense; as sunlight dries out the forest floor, which along with roads causes more forest fires, while heavy equipment damages the soil. Selectively logged ancient forests are diminished forever; containing different species in different abundances, changed size classes, differing forest structure, loss of genetic diversity and reductions in important soil microbes.
The new report indicates climate change is one of the biggest concerns when primary forests are selectively logged, as forest debris left behind decomposes and releases an estimated 100 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year in just the Amazon. This carbon release just by selective primary forest logging is enough to alter climate change forecasts on a global scale.
"The science on primary forests and selective logging is now clear, and Forests.org calls upon those pushing ancient forest 'sustainable logging' to get off the gravy train, heed the science, and start working to fully protect ancient forests which are the foundation of the global ecosystem," states Forests.org's President Dr. Glen Barry.-
Forests.org has been instrumental over past decades in highlighting the incompatibility of industrial logging - legal or illegal, selective or certified - and maintenance of large natural ancient forest landscapes required for global ecological sustainability.
The idea that selective logging of ancient forests can be done in an environmentally sensitive fashion is a dangerous myth threatening large ancient forest expanses wherever they occur, but particularly in Canada, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Unfortunately most major environmental groups including Greenpeace and WWF still cling to the notion that environmental benefits can come from first time industrial harvest of old-growth forests. And increasingly major environmental financiers such as the Pew Trusts and the Tides Foundation are funding organizations supporting ancient forest logging rather than efforts to end such practices, promote appropriately scaled community eco-forestry, and the establishment of large community supported protected areas. One can only wonder why.
Dr. Barry explains that "large ancient forests with intact ecological core areas free from industrial logging and other developments are a requirement for global ecological sustainability. Sadly, support for ancient forest logging by such luminaries as Greenpeace and Pew is a primary threat to the continued existence of the World's large primeval forest landscapes."
"As climate change, habitat loss, water scarcity and ocean decline spiral out of control, the mainstream environmental establishment is guilty of a dangerous lack of imagination, vision and policies sufficient to address the crises. In regards to rapidly diminishing forest and climatic systems, this new research indicates conclusively that more selective logging of ancient forests is certainly not an answer."