Tropical deforestation accounts for almost one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Because of its substantial deforestation, Indonesia is thought to be the world's third-largest producer of greenhouse gases, after the United States and China.

The Amazon rainforest has been described as the "lungs of our planet" because it provides the global environment with the essential service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest. In 2001, the Amazon covered approximately 5.4 million square kilometers, which is only 87 percent of its original size.^[1] Rainforests have decreased in size primarily due to deforestation. Despite reductions in the rate of deforestation in the last 10 years, the Amazon rainforest will diminish by 40 percent by 2030 at the current rate.^[2] According to WWF Brazil, deforestation and forest fires are responsible for 75 percent of Brazilian greenhouse gas emissions. 

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