Severe deforestation is taking place in Australia, as well as countries like Brazil and Indonesia.

In Tasmania, forests have been shrinking steadily over the past 50 years due to the state's billion-dollar timber industry.

But besides depleting the forest itself, logging also releases significant levels of carbon into the atmostphere.

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley travelled to the Tasmanian forest at the centre of the debate between the industry and the environmentalists.