Some weeks back you may remember a lot going on around mysterious chainsaw Barbies popping up all over the place - in trees, up lamp-posts, on bandstands, by level-crossing gates... At the time, it was funny, but was - as ever - part of a campaign highlighting the actions of APP, those eternally Appalling Paper People and their destructive activities in Indonesia.
We've been putting pressure on toy companies (such as Mattel, Hasbro and Disney) who use APP's environmentally hostile products in their packaging - they've made the right noises, but so far haven't been convincing about doing anything really meaningful. We've highlighted the lies that emanate from APP like, well, a rapidly emanating thing, the ensuing PR fiasco (epic FAIL, APP) and sadly, had to tell the world about the real effect their forest destruction has when an endangered Sumatran tiger was killed in a trap on the edge of an APP acacia plantation. When it comes down to it, deforestation = death - for habitats, species/biodiversity, natural climate change buffering, and for people who rely on wild forests for their livelihoods.
So, what can you do?
Well, one easy online action is to write to Mattel's CEO and urge the company to stop using destructive rainforest products in its packaging.
You can also write to the consultancy firm McKinsey and urge them to stop giving bad advice to developing countries that actually makes deforestation worse.
And of course, get active with your local group! Just like the Barbie Hunt (they didn't tie themselves to trees!), we always welcome more volunteers to help make sure our campaigns happen, and not everything happens online. Somewhere out there is a local group contact just waiting to hear from you...
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