The world is running out of time to halt deforestation and forest degradation. Yet instead of stepping up, the United States is dismantling forest protections and undermining global progress – highlighting the dangers of global forest policy that fails to hold the wealthiest, most powerful countries accountable.

Unsustainable logging is one of the global north’s best-kept secrets. Each year, millions of acres of old-growth and primary forests across North America, Europe and Australia are clearcut under the guise of “sustainable forest management”. International policy, by design, looks the other way, focusing attention instead on deforestation in the tropics. This double standard allows the world’s wealthiest nations to evade accountability for industrial logging’s catastrophic consequences.

It is a system built on the false assumption that the global north behaves responsibly, while scrutiny is reserved for tropical countries. But the latest actions by the US highlight just how dangerous and unbalanced this paradigm is.

Donald Trump has taken an axe to forest protections in the US, announcing two executive

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