Celebrating International Day of Forests

03/20/2019

Today, on International Day of Forests, join us in celebrating our planet’s most critical ecosystems.

Forests – they produce the vast majority of the oxygen we need to survive, they provide habitat to millions of animals and plant species, they are essential to not only mitigating climate change, but providing fresh water, and they sustain and enrich the cultures and livelihoods of hundreds of indigenous communities.

Yet, deforestation continues at an alarming rate. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year. This means one and a half acres of forest are cut down every second, or 20 football fields are destroyed every minute.

For all these reasons, and many more, protecting forests and preventing deforestation is one of Nature and Culture’s main priorities. We’ve helped protect more than 17 million acres of threatened ecosystems in Latin America, including, most recently:

• A 1.1-million-acre reserve in the Andes of Ecuador
• Critical montane forest in north-central Peru
• Two conservation areas in Peru’s Marañon dry forest, one of the richest dry forests in the world

Proud as we are of our accomplishments, we are in a race against time. Join us in protecting 20 million acres of tropical forest by the year 2020. 

Protect our planet’s critical ecosystems today.