World Rainforest Week is October 12-18

By Josh Ran

How will you celebrate World Rainforest Week this year?

As tropical forests around the world continue to be endangered by unsustainable logging practices, climate change and the expansion of agribusiness, now is a critically important time to stand up for rainforests! Please plan to join our celebration of the forests by taking action to support these global treasures and ensure that future generations will benefit from the clean air, biodiversity and climate control that rainforests provide.

Here are some ideas on ways to celebrate World Rainforest Week. Please let us know how you plan to celebrate in the comments below!

Hold a movie screening and discussion showing the documentary “Green”: Green tells a moving story about the corporate conversion of rainforests in Indonesia for palm oil, tropical wood and paper through the eyes of a dying orangutan. As you may already know, almost 90% of orangutan habitat has already disappeared. If current trends of deforestation continue, the orangutan will be extinct in the near future.

Green can be downloaded for free at http://greenfilm.free.fr/. Register your screening by contacting Hillary@ran.org, and we’ll send you discussion questions and some tips for a successful movie night.

Gather petition signatures demanding that Cargill adopt and implement a global forest policy. Our petition can be downloaded at http://action.ran.org/images/a/ac/Cargill_Petition.pdf. And you can find more information about Cargill’s role in rainforest destruction for palm oil plantations and download factsheets at http://action.ran.org/index.php/Cargill. (Please return all signed petitions to RAN!)

Be a rainforest educator: We have lesson plans and fun activity ideas for children of all ages! Whether you’re a teacher, a student, or someone with an urge to increase awareness among your friends or community members, you can help protect the rainforests with our educational materials.

Blog for the Rainforests!: Write a post about World Rainforest Week for any blogs that you’re part of (and send us the links!). Tell friends on Facebook and other social networks.

Not all rainforests are tropical: The coastal rainforests of British Columbia are one of very few temperate rainforests in the world. However, the Northern Gateway pipeline, proposed by Enbridge, is a huge threat to this ancient forest. The pipeline would carry dirty tar sands oil from Alberta to Kitimat, a little town at the end of a beautiful inlet on BC’s coast that is surrounded by spectacular old-growth rainforests. If this pipeline is built, massive oil tankers from the Western U.S. and Asia will plow through the narrow coastal inlets to load up oil in Kitimat, where an oil spill would spell catastrophe for the Great Bear Rainforest. Click here to learn more about how tar sands development is threatening Canada’s temperate rainforests.

Donate (or hold a fundraiser) to celebrate World Rainforest Week by supporting RAN’s work to protect rainforests.

Those are our ideas. What do you suggest?

Have a happy World Rainforest Week!