Forest Trade

Native old-growth forests around the world are under attack from multinational timber corporations. This 1,000 year old tree was recently cut in British Columbia, Canada. Over 80% of the softwood cut in Canada is exported to the United States, a process that has been made easier by the elimination of trade barriers under NAFTA. Photo by Forest Action Network.

Unless the global society addresses the negative impacts of increased globalization we will continue to see increased logging of the world's native forests and more of the world's timber supply controlled by a few multinational timber corporations that have the resources and the power to move from continent to continent. This exploitation of forests, workers and indigenous peoples must end.

IMF: Funding Deforestation: How International Monetary Fund Loans and Policies are Responsible for Global Forest Loss
This November 2001 report by Jason Tockman of the American Lands Alliance examines how forest loss has occurred both directly and indirectly through the programs and policies of the International Monetary Fund.

Understanding the Free Trade Area of the Americas: A Guide for Activists

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA): Make your voice heard!
Learn more about the proposed expansion of NAFTA with the FTAA and the threats this would present to native forests and people throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. Also, contains links to other organizations working on globalization issues.

Global Free Trade: Perspectives from New Zealand
Contains two essays, "What's wrong with economics and how can it be fixed" and "Global free trade and the threat to forests."

Multinational Monitor
The Multinational Monitor tracks corporate activity, especially in the Third World, focusing on the export of hazardous substances, worker health and safety, labor union issues and the environment. They also focus heavily on trade organizations and policies such as the WTO, World Bank, IMF, NAFTA and FTAA.

Protest at the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle, Washington. Boise Cascade has made incredible profits exploiting the forests of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Their attempts to build the world's largest chipmill in Chile have recently been abolished. To learn more about Boise Cascade contact Rainforest Action Network or visit Endgame Research Services. Photo by Phil Knight/NFN.