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Dogwood Alliance: Protecting Southern U.S. Forests Through
Protecting Southern U.S. Forests Through the Lens of Justice and Climate
©JPLENIO PIXABAY
The coming decade will be one of the most critical in all of human history. By 2030, we as a species will have turned decisively away from extractive industries, mismanagement of our natural world, and the burning of fossil fuels. Dogwood Alliance will play a central role in making that happen.
For over 25 years, Dogwood Alliance has worked to advance environmental justice and climate action by mobilizing diverse voices to protect Southern Forests and communities from industrial logging. We do this in partnership with diverse frontline communities, organizations from across the region and around the world, and key government and corporate decision-makers to ensure the protection of Southern forests across 14 states.
Forests provide us with the very air we breathe, clean our drinking water supply, and are home to millions of plant and animal species. They protect us from flooding and are one of the most significant forces for helping us survive the worst effects of climate change. They are our connection to nature and can help us cope with stress, fatigue, and anxiety.
The South is the world’s number one source of lumber, paper, and wood pellets. Large-scale production of wood products is destroying our Southern forests. Industrial logging in the Southern U.S. accounts for our forests being four times more logged than the rainforests of South America. Our communities in the South who depend on these forests suffer the most. Communities can suffer abysmal rates of asthma and other pollution-induced health problems. Flooding from hurricanes and powerful storms affect tens of millions of us each year, creating health and housing crises and costing billions of dollars.
OUR SOLUTIONS:
• Log less and improve logging practices.
Stay out of critically important areas and conserve our wetland forests.
• End the use of biomass energy and the export of wood pellets to Europe.
Promote truly renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind.
• Stop the conversion of hardwood forests to pine plantations. Pine plantations are monoculture crops, not forests, and do not support diverse plant and animal life.
• Value standing forests economically for all the life-supporting benefits they provide us, not just as a product for harvest.
• Elevate forest protection in the U.S. as a climate solution. As we enter our 25th year, we know that Southern forests will be central to meaningful climate action. We recommit ourselves to transform not just how those forests are managed but how we relate to the ecosystems that we rely on for survival.
Just like the trees in the forests we seek to protect, we are one part of a much bigger whole. That’s why we are already working to build the largest, most diverse, and most powerful social movement that the world has ever seen. Our goal is not just to protect Southern forests or Southern communities—it is to provide a model for the entire climate movement.
