7 steps you can take to help save the Amazon and the world's rainforests, from the Rainforest Action Network.
1) Reduce your paper and wood consumption.
Logging companies are cutting down some of the most endangered forests on the planet to make wood and paper products such as office paper, phone books, toilet paper, window trim, lawn furniture, and 2 x 4's. Over seventy-eight percent of the Earth's original old-growth forests have already been logged or degraded.
One of the ways to save the rainforest is by reducing your own wood and paper use. For example, use both sides of each piece of paper, use your own cloth bags at the grocery store, use cloth napkins and towels, and avoid disposable paper plates and cups.
Looking up the trunk of a giant rainforest tree
When purchasing paper products, choose products with the highest percentage of recycled content (post-consumer recycled content is the best). To save the rainforest, choose tree-free paper alternatives if possible. Tree-free paper is made from agricultural products like waste straw, kenaf, and hemp, so not a single tree is cut down for its production!
If you are wondering how to help the Amazon rainforest, utilize wood-efficient building techniques and avoid old-growth wood products if you’re building or remodeling your home. Learn about alternatives such as reclaimed or recycled lumber, composite lumber, and independently certified wood.
2) Reduce your oil consumption.
The burning of oil, gas, and coal is the primary cause of climate change. This is a trend that is threatening the stability of the global climate.
Scientists have predicted that if we stay on our current path, global temperatures will rise between 2° and 9° Fahrenheit in the next century. That’s a warming rate faster than any occurring in the last ten thousand years.
In addition, oil exploration projects lead to toxic pollution and massive deforestation, which poses a threat to pristine ecosystems and indigenous cultures worldwide.
You can save the rainforest by reducing your own oil and gas consumption. The next time you purchase a car, choose one that gets good gas mileage and avoid gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles.
If you drive somewhere regularly, start a carpool. Whenever possible, leave your car at home and instead walk, ride your bike, or take local mass transportation.
Support funding for mass transportation and bike lanes. These are ways to save the rainforest that will serve our transportation needs and our planet much better in the long run than an ever-expanding maze of roads and highways!
Incorporating responsible travel into your daily life doesn’t have to stop at home either. When exploring new destinations, consider eco-conscious adventures like our Amazon Tours & River Cruises.
These experiences prioritize travel conservation and showcase the Amazon’s breathtaking biodiversity while supporting sustainable practices and indigenous communities. By making these small adjustments to your lifestyle and travel habits, you actively contribute to solutions to deforestation in the Amazon.
3) Reduce your beef consumption.
Rainforest beef is typically found in fast food hamburgers or processed beef products. In both 1993 and 1994, the U. S. imported over 200 million pounds of fresh and frozen beef from Central American countries.
Two-thirds of these countries' rainforests have been cleared, in part to raise cattle whose meat is exported to profit the U. S. food industry. When it enters the U. S. the beef is not labeled with its country of origin, so there is no way to trace it to its source. Or buy your beef from a local rancher where you can verify new forests are not being cleared for grazing lands.
Reducing your consumption of beef will reduce demand for it. This will cut back on the pressure to clear more forests for cattle.
Additionally, prioritizing plant-based meals or sourcing locally and sustainably produced beef are other ways to save the rainforest. Small shifts in dietary habits can collectively drive meaningful change.
For more information on the connection between beef and the environment, contact Earthsave International, 1509 Seabright Avenue, Suite B1, Santa Cruz, CA 95062; 1-800-362-3648; www.earthsave.org.
4) Hold businesses accountable.
Corporations need to know that the public will hold them accountable for business practices that are socially or environmentally destructive. If you feel that a company's business practices are environmentally irresponsible, send the company a letter expressing your concern, or organize a boycott of the company.
Below you'll find information about two companies that you can write to as part of the process of how to help the Amazon rainforest. To learn more about these companies, please visit our website at www.ran.org.
A. Boise sells wood products from the world's most endangered forests, including the tropical rainforests of the Amazon and Southeast Asia and the temperate rainforests of Chile. Boise is also the country's largest logger of U. S. public lands. Please ask Boise to phase out its logging and distribution of old-growth wood. Write to George Harad, Chairman &CEO, Boise Corporation, 1111 West Jefferson Street, PO Box 50, Boise, ID 83728.
5) Invest in rainforest communities.
RAN's Protect-an-Acre Program was created to save the rainforests and to support the rights of rainforest communities. The Protect-an-Acre Program is an alternative to "buy-an-acre" programs, which tend to ignore the fact that there are often people who depend on the forest and have lived in the forest sustainably for centuries.
Protect-an-Acre provides funding to help forest people gain legal recognition of their territories, develop locally-based alternative economic initiatives, and resist destructive practices such as logging and fossil fuel development. For information about how to help the Amazon rainforest, visit the Protect-an-Acre section on RAN’s website.
6) Support the grassroots.
In 1999, Home Depot, the single largest retailer of lumber in the world, agreed to phase out its sales of old-growth wood. This victory was a direct result of the hard work of grassroots activists, who staged more than six hundred demonstrations at Home Depot stores across the U. S. and Canada.
You can start saving the rainforest by joining or starting a Grassroots Action Group in your area! Contact RAN's Grassroots Coordinator at 415-398-4404 or organize@ran.org for help in finding a local group or advice on starting your own group. Equally important, help protect the forests in your region by getting involved with a local forest preservation group.
7) Support Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch
Rainforest Action Network is an effective, hard-hitting organization.
In 1985, RAN launched a nationwide boycott of Burger King, which was importing cheap beef from tropical rainforest countries. Two years later, Burger King canceled thirty-five million dollars worth of beef contracts and agreed to stop importing beef from the rainforest.
RAN then led a global consumer boycott against Mitsubishi. This resulted in Mitsubishi Motor Sales America and Mitsubishi Electric America committing to unprecedented environmental reviews of their business activities.
Most recently, as a result of a two-year campaign led by RAN, the nation's top home improvement retailers and largest home builders agreed to phase out the sale and use of wood from the Earth's endangered forests. None of these victories would have been possible without the support of our members. To join RAN, please call (415) 398-4404.
Give to RAN’s Protect-an-Acre program (PAA) which gives grants to more than 150 frontline communities, Indigenous-led organizations, and allies. Supporting the land rights of Indigenous Peoples is one of the most effective ways to save the rainforests. This program gives you the opportunity to give directly to the frontline communities fighting to stop this destruction.
Support our friends at Amazon Watch who have a long history of working to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon Basin.
Save the Rainforest by Traveling With Intention
In the process of how to save the Amazon rainforest, your efforts can go even further when you travel with intention. By choosing our Amazon River Cruises, for example, you support sustainable tourism that respects the Amazon’s delicate ecosystems and cultures.
These immersive experiences around responsible travel inspire awareness and empower you to protect the rainforest long after their journey ends. Tell us your travel plans, and let’s work together to preserve this vital region.
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