Major developments are threatening two of the most diverse and stunning ecosystems in the world.  In the Amazon, political shifts threaten to completely unravel legal protections for the Amazon rainforest.  In the Bering Sea, a fisheries collapse could devastate the entire ecosystem.

Amazon Rainforest

The Brazilian government is threatening to weaken the core legal protections for the Amazon, endangering one of the planet's most important ecosystems that helps balance our climate.  In just the last year, we've lost nearly 3 million acres of rainforest in Brazil alone.  Many of the protections we've won for the Amazon rely on Brazil's Forest Code.  Right now, agribusiness is attempting to influence the Brazilian Congress to weaken the Forest Code.  If that happens, we can expect a dramatic increase in deforestation rates, a significant loss of biodiversity, and a massive impact on global warming as carbon stored in the forest is released into the atmosphere.

Alaska's Bering Sea

We've been warning for years that the Bering Sea's pollock fishery - the world's largest - is suffering from overfishing.  We've been called everything from crazy to exaggerating for making this claim about a fishery that has been held up as a model of sustainability.  But news this month confirms our worst fears.  The pollock population has plummeted by almost 50% in just one year.  Pollock is the very foundation of the Bering Sea's food chain, feeding everything from the endangered Steller Sea Lion to fur seals.  In fact, baby fur seals are already washing up dead in the Pribilof Islands, and scientists hypothesize that their deaths are caused by starvation.

Take Action >> The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council will vote this month to set fishing limits on pollock!

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