Did you know that although forests make up less than 10% of the Earth's surface, they are home to nearly two-thirds of the world's biodiversity?
Did you know that three quarters of the world’s accessible freshwater comes from rivers inside of or around forests?
Did you know that 80% of global deforestation is driven by the need to create space for agricultural crops and livestock?
Today marks the 13th International Day of Forests (IDF) which has been recognised since 2012 as a day to advocate about the importance of forests through local, national, and international activities and campaigns. The 2025 theme for International Day of Forests is “Forests and Food,” highlighting the critical role of forests in food supply and security.
Forests provide timber and non-timber products for food, medicine, and the general livelihood of people living within or around them. In some parts of the world, forests provide 20% of the income for rural families, enabling them to finance their needs while giving access to nutritious foods from the forest that help keep families healthy and strong.
Forests also protect freshwater sources since trees serve as natural sponges that collect and filter rainfall before slowly releasing the water into rivers and streams.[1] This ability to filter sediments and other pollutants from freshwater produces benefits to human health and the local ecosystems by preventing water born diseases.
Monobamba is a rainforest that clings to the slopes of the Andes mountains in Peru | Photo: Fr John Boles SSC
Yet every year, 10 million hectares of trees are chopped down to cater for agriculture and livestock. Deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia account for almost half of the world’s land clearing and with it the destruction of habitats that threaten the biodiversity of animals and plants. In Borneo (Indonesia) for example, the critically endangered orangutan has lost nearly 80% of its population over the last five decades.[2]
Columban Father Shay Cullen, a missionary priest to the Philippines since 1969, tells how the loss of forests on Luzon Island have had a negative impact on the Aeta people, an indigenous group of hunter gatherers who lived in forests located in the Zambales mountains. Like the biodiverse wildlife of plants and animals, the Aeta people have lost major parts of their forest through deforestation, heavy rainfall, eroded soil, and landslides. An Aeta village chief by the name of Susan shared that unexpected rainstorms have caused the mango blossoms to fall so that her people went without mangoes for three years.
Fr. Shay shares,
“They have lost their rain forests and the climate will never revert again to be a balanced harmonious influence for growth if we do not stop the warming. The rivers are polluted, the chickens die, local children are frequently sick and crying. When we are at war with the earth, we are at war with ourselves. When we hurt the planet earth, we hurt ourselves for we are one with it. We humans have evolved from its soil, its chemistry, and its life forms. The earth is our mother that gave us life and we are its consciousness. Through us, the planet and the universe reflects and contemplates its own self because we are its brain, the thinking being and the planet is conscious and self-aware through us.”
This International Forests Day, let us pray for plants, animals, and human life that is dependent on the biodiverse systems of forests which supply the world with food, water, and oxygen, while being home to many indigenous communities, plants, and wildlife.
May we be conscious to the cries of creation, may we actively protect our forests from further degradation, and may we be good stewards of God’s creation by surrendering our individualism that keeps us separate from the web of life.
Amen.
Adi Mariana Waqa is the Partnership Coordinator at the Columban Mission Centre in Essendon.