September 21st marked the 16th International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations, a day to celebrate resistance and demand development agencies stop promoting expansion of large-scale tree plantations.

Massive tree plantations are falsely promoted as a solution to climate change and fossil fuel consumption. Tree plantations coupled with accelerating climate change and poor forest management practices also exacerbate fire conditions. The historic fires engulfing California and the Pacific Northwest are a reminder of the devastation experienced by rural communities globally due to vast monoculture timber plantations.

In a statement from Global Justice Ecology Project, “Increasingly, ecological crises such as climate change and invasion by pathogens are being used by corporations and researchers as excuses to legalize genetically engineered trees and use them in industrial plantations.” 

These plantations threaten the sovereignty of communities and peoples. The first step to stopping this disaster is keeping the door shut to genetically engineered trees. They have never been approved in the United States and we must ensure that they never are. 

For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth Show, this is Theresa Church from Global Justice Ecology Project.