Old Growth

Preserving endangered forests

Rainforest Action Network’s Old Growth Campaign is shining a spotlight on companies and industries that engage in outdated, destructive logging. We mobilize the power of public opinion to hold the corporate sector accountable to protecting our forests and our future. Learn more.

Buy good wood

RAN encourages wood and paper buyers to understand the origin of the products they buy. Look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo as a tool to promote environmentally, socially and economically responsible management of the world's forests.

Beware of imitations. Multinational loggers armed with multi-million dollar Public Relations contracts are pushing imitations, such as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), designed to evade higher standards and mislead consumers.

Learn more about certification standards at the links below.

    End destructive logging

    RAN is pushing major wood and paper buyers such as Weyerhaeuser Corp. and Office Max to use their purchasing power to end destructive logging in endangered forests around the world.

    Destructive logging, spurred by high demand for cheap wood and paper products, is decimating the planet’s last old-growth forests. Learn how to help us force corporate America to stop destroying endangered forests and the communities that depend on them. 

    Protect North America's last pristine forest

    We are working to protect Canada's boreal forest, the largest intact forest in North America, from destructive logging and other industrial activities.

    Home to endangered species such as the caribou and wolverine, the boreal forest is also the world’s largest terrestrial carbon storehouse—a critical defense against global warming. Keys to protecting the boreal include:

    1. respecting the land rights of Indigenous communities, and
    2. getting industrial paper makers and home builders out of ecologically important areas.

    Support Indigenous land rights in Canadian forests

    Indigenous communities are often the best stewards of land they've inhabited for centuries and must always play an active role in developing plans for sustainable use.

    Canada’s treaties with First Nations guarantee them the right to practice customary activities like hunting and trapping on their traditional territory. But logging companies like Weyerhaeuser have ignored the right of northwestern Ontario’s Grassy Narrows First Nation to give free, prior and informed consent for any industrial activities on its land. RAN is working closely with the Grassy Narrows community to ensure that Canada’s government and companies like Weyerhaeuser respect treaty obligations.

    Featured item

    GM CEO refuses to take a stand

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    Jim Gollin

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