In the past 25 years, 3.3 million km2 of forest has been cut down. This means that every 2 seconds, a football field worth of forest disappears. There has been large-scale deforestation particularly in the Amazon basin, the Congolese rainforest, Indonesia, and the boreal rainforests.

Trees are cut down to acquire land for livestock and agriculture, for construction, mining, oil extraction, and unsustainable timber production. The consequences for the ecosystem and greenhouse gas emissions are immense.