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Photo Credit: Jojo

Logging has been the cause of complete deforestation for many years. Illegal logging is an even bigger problem because it is unregulated and ruthless. However, for the first time in a long time there is some good news.

Illegal logging has dropped all around the globe. According to a report released yesterday by Chatham House, it’s been estimated that illegal logging is down 22% worldwide since 2002. In some places, the logging has dropped even more significantly. The practice is down 50% in Cameroon, 75% in Indonesia, and more than 50% in the Brazilian Amazon! The reason for the declines vary by country but overall people are realizing just how damaging illegal logging is, and what a severe problem it is becoming. Not only does it threaten biodiversity and release vast amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, illegal logging also threatens indigenous people living in the forest and costs governments millions of dollars in lost revenue. Governmental policies that crack down on illegal loggers combined with pressures from non-governmental organizations seem to have finally paid off. A decade of improvements has spared more that 65 million square miles of rainforest in Cameroon, Indonesia, and the Amazon.

Although this is great news, the problem is by no means solved. “The fact that we measured significant declines in logging should not be taken as a reason for complacency, but quite the opposite. Things have improved, but things are still very bad” says Sam Lawson, lead author of the Chatham House report. The battle to save the forests is not over, it’s just taking a turn for the better.

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