Coinciding with the Biodiversity Summit (COP 8) taking place in Brazil, Greenpeace today presented two reports with the most accurate maps to date of the most valuable areas of forests and oceans on Earth. Greenpeace calls for the creation of a global network of forest and marine protected areas.

The current rate of extinction of terrestrial and marine life, unprecedented in history, has motivated Greenpeace to design and present detailed maps on biodiversity. The disappearance of animal and plant species is approximately 1,000 times greater than in times before the appearance of humans and predictions suggest that by 2050 this rate will be 10,000 times higher. Among the data extracted, it stands out that less than 10% of the planet’s forests remain intact

The mapping has been carried out using high-resolution satellite images of the planet’s forests and the latest data and techniques to locate marine life in the oceans. This has created a more precise scenario of how governments can act to protect the planet’s most important ecosystems. The fact that such accurate information is available for the first time has prompted Greenpeace to urge governments to establish a global network of protected areas and to have a funding mechanism to make it possible.

The release of the maps coincides with Greenpeace’s campaigns to bring the global biodiversity crisis to light. Greenpeace is in the heart of the Amazon exposing the deforestation of the forest for the implantation of soy crops; it has also established a resistance station in Papua New Guinea’s Paradise Forests to protect its forests from illegal logging; while at sea, one of Greenpeace’s ships, the MY Esperanza, is carrying out the more than year-long expedition “In defense of the oceans”, which these days is focused on stopping pirate fishing and, with it, ensuring the future of thousands of coastal communities whose lifestyle depends on the marine environment that is their main source of food and income.