In places like Korea, Vietnam, Congo, Ivory Coast and Burma, war has had a devastating impact on rainforests.

For instance, in Burma, the brutal military junta ruling the country initiated a “scorched-earth” policy, assisted by Thai logging companies, to clear the forests of the southern panhandle, thus eliminating the forest strongholds of opposing ethnic minorities. This policy continues to this day.

In Vietnam, the use of Agent Orange, a defoliant (a 50-50 mix of two chemicals, known conventionally as 2,4,D (2,4, dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and 2,4,5-T (2,4,5 trichlorophenoxyacetic acid, produced by Monsanto), during the American war there, wiped out vast areas of formerly healthy forests. The impacts of the uses of these chemicals can be extremely long-lived.