Paradox: European forests thrive, while the Amazon rainforest suffers severe damage.

The connection between the Amazon rainforest and forests in Europe.

The Amazon rainforest is perhaps the most politicized of all the world's natural resources, partly because of its unique scale and biodiversity; and partly because, of course, of its importance as a massive carbon sink to the ongoing global climate crisis.

Furthermore, the Amazon rainforest is often considered a symbol of the Earth's lungs, which has inadvertently placed Brazil and its government under global public scrutiny regarding environmental issues.

Conversely, European forests are rarely mentioned and seldom become a topic of discussion, either regionally or internationally. This is largely because few Europeans question their inherent importance. Few realize that, quietly, the explosive growth of these European forests is one of the most encouraging developments of our time.

From a geographical perspective, the two examples of the Amazon rainforest and the European forest above seem unrelated, but in reality, they have a deeper underlying connection than it appears on the surface.

Essentially, they represent two stark contrasting examples of the world's conservation efforts: 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been lost in the last two generations, while Europe has seen a significant increase in forest cover over the same period. In fact, between 1990 and 2015, the increase in forest area in Europe was equivalent to the size of the entire country of Portugal.

Forests in Europe are managed and planned.

Many believe that European forests were massively and haphazardly cleared during the Industrial Revolution. While this did happen, the process was very slow, spanning 2,000 years – beginning with the early Europeans who gradually cleared land for agriculture and pastures. As Ján Mičovský, President of the European Forestry Organization, often points out, only 2% of the continent's forests remain "undisturbed by humans."

Over time, much of Europe's forests are no longer primary or old-growth forests, but instead are tightly managed resources. There are many motivations behind such management, related to actions for conservation – protecting biodiversity, maintaining landscapes, or reusing resources.

Therefore, unlike the Amazon rainforest, forests in Europe have been intertwined with human life for centuries, to the point that their value and benefits are now very well understood.

Since at least the 1970s, public policy in most European countries has revolved around understanding the diverse values ​​that forests can provide. Today, these policies encompass mitigating the harmful effects of climate change on forests, but also continue to view forests as a truly valuable economic resource. Accordingly, forests protect land and water resources, create a bioeconomy, and contribute in multiple ways to the financial well-being of rural communities.

To date, more than one-third of Europe's land area is covered by forests, an increase of 9% in 30 years. According to statistics from the European Ministerial Conference on Forest Protection, during the same period, "the volume of timber and the weight of carbon stored in the biomass of European forests have increased by 50%".

...But with the Amazon rainforest, economic gaps still exist.

European leaders also need to reconsider the deforestation in Europe over the past 2,000 years, as these very economic needs have fueled the deforestation in the Amazon today.

Policies and the lack of practical enforcement of forest protection laws exacerbate the problem. Deforestation in Brazil and other South American countries is simply an act of poverty, as forests appear to be the only source of livelihood for farmers in the region. Their logging or illegal hunting activities are so small-scale that they are impossible to manage and control within the food production chain.

Even if policies could be applied to medium-sized and larger livestock producers, European law tends to focus only on meat sources and not on related products such as hides, furs, and animal feed.

One could say these actions are no different than using a water cannon to extinguish a forest fire. Russell Lello de Miranda, a council member of Humaita, a municipality in the Amazonas state of Brazil, commented that farmers who destroy forests are not the villains in the "movie."Who is destroying the Amazon rainforest?They are simply unfortunate people who have to constantly move from place to place and find all sorts of ways to survive.

To save the Amazon rainforest, save the people who are destroying it.

Mike Alcalde, a Mexican documentary filmmaker who has personally experienced the severe environmental degradation across Latin America, agrees with Lello de Miranda on the path forward. Foreign funding for sustainable development and forest protection must be organized into formal initiatives, with the active and direct participation of these communities.

"As usual, those who only sit back, observing the big picture and thinking from a macro perspective, can't do anything to solve the problem. To save the Amazon rainforest, we have to work with and directly support the people who actually live in this environment," Mike said.

Historically, European forests have undergone processes of destruction and regeneration, and have faced a series of environmental crises over very long periods.

But, "the world cannot wait for the same process to happen to the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon rainforest needs root-cause intervention, and liberation for the people trapped in the cycle of survival," Mike added, "Help them, and we will solve the problem."

The remarkable recovery and growth of forests in Europe is a story worth telling and celebrating, but it is time we recognized the path to addressing the core economic problem of deforestation – on a global scale.

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