Earth Day is approaching – tell your New York legislators to protect rainforests!

The New York legislature is preparing a package of bills to pass this Earth Day – your message can help ensure that package passes including the NY TREES Act!

The Tropical Rainforest Economic & Environmental Sustainability (TREES) Act creates a real incentive for companies to engage in ethical business and halt deforestation practices. But it won’t pass without help from activists like you!

Dear Legislator,

As your constituent, I am writing to ask you to co-sponsor S.8898/A.9711, the Tropical Rainforest Economic & Environmental Sustainability (TREES) Act.

This bill will put New York State at the forefront of global efforts to end the crisis of deforestation in tropical regions by ensuring that entities contracting to provide goods or services to our state government do not drive deforestation through their supply chains.

An estimated 18 million acres of forest, an area half the size of New York State, is lost every year due to human activities. Tropical forests cover roughly seven percent of the Earth’s surface but harbor close to 50 percent of all species on Earth, and tropical deforestation is the third leading driver of global CO2 emissions.

Public procurement is one of the largest levers we have for mitigating and reversing climate change. As the 11th largest economy in the world, our state’s purchasing power has significant market influence. For decades, New York has been successfully implementing common-sense procurement reforms, from labor protections to buying cleaner vehicles. The NY TREES Act will ensure that government procurement does not drive tropical deforestation, tropical primary forest degradation, or associated abuses of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Similar legislative efforts are occurring in jurisdictions worldwide, including deforestation-free regulations recently enacted in the European Union.

The bill is business friendly as well: it gives a bidding preference to small, medium-sized, and minority-and-women-owned businesses and creates a supply chain transparency assistance program to support these enterprises to achieve ethical supply chains for forest-risk products.

New York has been a leader in environmental stewardship and the fight against climate change, a fight we cannot win without addressing the impacts of deforestation. The TREES Act will extend New York State’s leadership to include the protection of global forests and send a crucial signal to the market that destructive, commodity-driven deforestation needs to stop. I respectfully urge you to do everything you can to support and ensure the passage of S.8898/A.9711, the NY TREES Act.

Thank you for representing my views.

Sincerely,

First name

Last name

Email address

Address line 1

City

State

Zip Code

Cell-phone number (optional)

Alerts about ways you can take action

By submitting this form, you are signing up to receive updates and alerts from Friends of the Earth. You may unsubscribe at any time.

By providing your mobile number and submitting this form, you are signing up to receive text messages from Friends of the Earth to fight for a more healthy and just world. Recurring messages. Msg & data rates may apply. Text STOP to 30373 to stop receiving messages. Text HELP to 30373 for more information. Terms & Conditions and Friends of the Earth's Privacy Policy