PRESS RELEASE

15% protection of last large intact forest ecosystems, and promotion of continued ancient forest diminishment, are insufficient to maintain Earth’s ecosystems, climate, biosphere and human advancement.

This week the Democratic Republic of Congo announced new protections for 10% of their rainforest [ark] , moving towards Brazil’s goal of 15% preservation of the Amazon. WWF and other environmental groups hailed 85% industrial destruction and diminishment of the rest of the world’s remaining large forest ecosystems as good news. At the UN biodiversity talks in Bonn, WWF organized non-binding national pledges to end deforestation [ark], ignoring biological simplification caused by industrial forestry. WWF promotes first-time ancient primary forest logging [search] which is nearly as bad ecologically as total deforestation. These inadequate responses come as a new study shows ecosystem loss is already costing hundreds of billions [ark] of dollars a year.

Ecological Internet is committed — as keystone responses to the climate, biodiversity, water and food crises — to ending all industrial development of the world’s remaining primary and natural ecosystems, and committing to strict protection for half of the world’s land and sea as global ecological reserves. The remainder will need to be ecologically managed to sustainably meet human needs in perpetuity. This will require massive ecological restoration and protection of forest remnants in over-developed countries, and major new protected areas (increased by 3-5 times) in countries holding the Earth’s remaining primary natural habitats.