An Invisible Ax – Transnational Corporations’ Slashing at Amazonia

Do you know the leather of your shoes came from deforested Amazon rainforest, and that the napkins in fast food chains use rainforest pulp from Borneo, Indonesia?

In less than 7% of the world’s land surface, the Amazon rainforest stores 20% of the world’s fresh water. It is the world’s largest bio-diversity treasure as well as the key to alleviate global warming.

The 1960s saw the debut of unharnessed deforestation. Clandestinely supported by the government, local developers claimed ever larger portion of the rainforest with mighty means. In the past 20years, more than 1000 conservationists were murdered. Violent conflicts were triggered by huge commercial interests—as global corporates’ need for rainforest products continued swelling, development projects grew in both scale and amount.

The Amazon rainforest is not far away. What can we do to curb further deforestation?