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As many as one billion people worldwide depend on forests for their basic needs. There are virtually no large tracts of tropical forests without people living in them. For these people, forest destruction means loss of livelihood, cultural collapse, increasing poverty and the denial of their internationally recognised human rights.

Although international recognition of the rights of forest peoples, particularly indigenous peoples, has advanced globally, human rights abuses against forest campaigners is a growing problem worldwide.

FERN’s report Forests of Fear (December 2001, PDF, 1.05MB) links human rights abuses to forest loss and argues that without respect for human rights there is small chance of saving the world's forests.