Solidarity Letter Supporting NY Trees Bill

A solidarity letter from 154 civil society and Indigenous Peoples organizations across 28 countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa urging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to sign the TREES Act (Bill # A.9711/S.8898) into law to protect tropical forests.

• The TREES Act (Bill # A.9711/S.8898) is described as a historic piece of legislation for tropical forest protection that would allow New York to use "significant economic leverage" to support global efforts to combat climate change.
• The signatories argue that consumption of goods in wealthy nations, such as coffee, lumber, palm oil, and beef, causes devastation in their home territories, citing the EU Deforestation Regulation as the first law in the global North to recognize this link.
• The document reports that over 9 million acres of rainforest were burned, slashed, and converted to industrial wasteland last year, and asserts that half of the world's forests have disappeared.
• Environmental destruction, including droughts, wildfires, crop failures, and floods, is identified as a major driver of climate migration, specifically mentioning people from Honduras, Haiti, and Congo fleeing to New York.
• The letter emphasizes that decisions made in Albany or the ports of Manhattan have direct impacts on tropical forest regions in Brazil, West Africa, and Southeast Asia.

APA

Gomes, M., Brownell, A., & Suhadi, Z. (2025). Solidarity Letter Supporting NY Trees Bill. Friends of the Earth. https://foe.org/solidarity-letters-supporting-the-ny-trees-bill/

Chicago

Gomes, Marcel, Alfred Brownell, and Zenzi Suhadi. Solidarity Letter Supporting NY Trees Bill. Friends of the Earth, 2025. https://foe.org/solidarity-letters-supporting-the-ny-trees-bill/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Gomes |first1=Marcel |last2=Brownell |first2=Alfred |last3=Suhadi |first3=Zenzi |title=Solidarity Letter Supporting NY Trees Bill |publisher=Friends of the Earth |date=18 September 2025 |url=https://foe.org/solidarity-letters-supporting-the-ny-trees-bill/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{gomes2025solidarity, author = {Gomes, Marcel and Brownell, Alfred and Suhadi, Zenzi}, title = {{Solidarity Letter Supporting NY Trees Bill}}, publisher = {Friends of the Earth}, year = {2025}, month = sep, url = {https://foe.org/solidarity-letters-supporting-the-ny-trees-bill/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }