The next step in our campaign to stop big soy and palm companies from destroying rainforests is to show them why rainforests are so important… So we are excited to launch the Save the Rainforest Poster Contest. Winners will receive T-shirts for all the students in their class and a hand woven monkey, and will have their art-work promoted all over the Internet.

All entries will be hand-delivered along with the letters that many of you have sent us to give to ADM (thank you for the letters!) Posters can be any size and made by anybody from any age (just please specify age). They should show why rainforests are too important to be cut down for soybeans or palm oil. The companies ADM, Bunge and Cargill can be mentioned, but it is not necessary. Please make sure we receive your posters by March 10, 2008 to:

Poster Contest
Rainforest Action Network
221 Pine St. Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94104

Cutting down the forest

Giant soy and palm oil plantations are being built in tropical forests in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa. When a farm is built in the forest, the forest is destroyed and everyone who lives there—people and animals—needs to leave. The companies that are responsible for much of this destruction are based in the United States. They are Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, and Cargill.

Species Extinction

Half of all the world’s plant and animal species live in the rainforest, even though rainforests make up just six percent of the world’s land surface. When the forests are destroyed, many species that have been around for millions of years are threatened with extinction. Extinction means that every single member of their kind disappears forever.

Contribution to Global Climate Change

Clear-cutting and burning tropical forests and peat bogs contributes one quarter, or 25 percent, of the world’s total production of the gasses that cause climate change. Indonesia is now the third largest contributor of carbon dioxide—also called CO2, the leading gas causing climate change. Brazil is the fourth largest. That’s because Indonesia and Brazil are cutting down their forests to make way for soy and palm oil plantations. If the world warms even 3 degrees more, scientists predict that all of the rainforests will dry up, our sea levels will rise, and we will have more floods and droughts. That would make it much harder for many people to get clean food and water.

Displacement of Indigenous People and Local Communities

In Indonesia and Brazil, Indigenous people are losing their land so American companies can make palm oil and soy plantations. When they leave the land they’ve always lived on, they can no longer grow their own food to eat. Indigenous people are also losing their access to clean drinking water because the soy and palm oil plantations contaminate rivers and streams with pesticides.

Unfair treatment of workers

Many soy and palm oil plantation workers face abuse, harsh working conditions and exposure to toxic pesticides. In Brazil, some soy farms supported by ADM don’t pay their workers, making them modern day slaves.

So join us!

We are working really hard to make sure these big companies stop hurting the rainforest and the climate, but we can’t do it alone. Please help by sending in letters and posters—and by continuing to fundraise for the Protect-an-Acre Program.