Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day – the world’s largest environmental movement to drive transformative change for people and planet. This year Earth Day will be observed in around 190 countries by close to 100,000 organizations, including FSC. More than 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.
Forests play an essential role in climate regulation both locally and as part of the water cycle. Alongside oceans, forests are the key ecosystem that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and carbon is stored in both trees and forest soils. The world’s forests contain roughly as much carbon as the atmosphere and the destruction of forest systems contributes to one-sixth of global carbon emissions.