Home > Campaigns > Biodiversity > Global pressures
Biodiversity is under threat worldwide for many different and complex reasons.
Forests are being cut down for paper and cleared for cattle ranching or palm oil.
Biofuel plantations pose a new threat to the world's most important habitats.
Mining of minerals like bauxite and iron ore leaves landscapes, wildlife and communities badly damaged.
Oil spills, sewage, industrial chemicals and heavy metals pollute the oceans.
Fish stocks are being exhausted by indiscriminate industrial fishing.
Big companies are ignoring wildlife protection laws and environmental standards.
Did you know?
Friends of the Earth persuaded governments to agree the Biosafety Protocol, which gives countries the right to refuse the import of genetically modified organisms that could damage their native biodiversity.
Rainforests are home to a vast amount of biodiversity, including endangered species such as:
Did you know?
A single acre of rainforest can contain as many different plant species as the entire UK - some 1,500 species.
Image © ARAZPA
More than two million hectares of Indonesian rainforest vanish every year, much of it linked to the spread of plantations producing palm oil.
The degradation of forests is harming many of the world's poorest people, and is sometimes the principal cause of poverty.
New laws are needed to rebalance global trade in favour of local communities and the environment.
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