This house would ban all unsustainable logging

Forests around the world are quickly shrinking as a result of illegal or unregulated deforestation. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface, but they now cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years: one and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second[1]. Deforestation affects developed and developing countries alike, but the problem is particularly acute in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia. For governments, forests represent untapped resources. In addition to the financial gains from commercial logging, forests are safety-valves for overpopulation and landlessness. In Africa and South America, wood is used as fuel.

Environmentalists argue that governments should outright ban logging. In North America, there have been violent clashes between logging companies and conservationists. In the 1990s, the World Bank stopped lending to logging companies after lobbying by environmental NGOs. Today the Bank will lend to companies that practice "sustainable harvesting", promoting low-impact logging and "sustainable use". More recently, forestry has become a major part of attempts to tackle global climate change, with Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) initiatives agreed at Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun in 2010 that may result in developing countries being paid by developed nations to protect their forests for the global good.

[1] http://deforestationintheamazon.wordpress.com/facts/  ‘Deforestation in the Amazon: Facts’ by Ryan Walters