Environmental group Greenpeace on Thursday urged the Group of Eight countries to stop subsidizing "destruction of the last ancient forests" within two years.
Their call came one day before the G8 begins its three-day summit in Okinawa Prefecture.
The group, which has been lobbying the G8 to promote sustainable forest management, said in a statement that a new report issued by the World Resources Institute, a center to provide information on the environment, found that those "perverse subsidies" stand at more than $3 billion.