Rainforests impact the environmental wellbeing of our entire planet. They support immense biodiversity found nowhere else on Earth. They play a critical role as carbon reservoirs and sinks that help to prevent climate change and they are home to unique forest people. Yet our rainforests remain exposed to a range of perils that threaten their very existence. The greatest of these is global warming itself, but it is not the only one. The rainforests and forest peoples are also at risk from industrial agribusiness, resource extraction, poor governance, illegal logging and the failure to recognize and respect the rights of forest peoples. As a result, these precious ecosystems are rapidly disappearing as unscrupulous organizations cut down forests to produce cheap paper and other commodities such as palm oil for global markets.
The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is working to change this. RAN campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.
Click here for Randy Hayes’ biography.
Play video “Ride Across America” below: