Reversing forest decline can combat climate change

Reversing forest decline can combat climate change
by Lester R.Brown
from People and Planet

The future of the planet's forests must play a big part in efforts to combat climate change says Lester Brown in this latest assessment of the continuing decline in tropical forests - and how that can be reversed. 

As of 2007, the shrinking forests in the tropical regions were releasing 2.2 billion tons of carbon per year. Meanwhile, expanding forests in the temperate regions were absorbing 0.7 billion tons of carbon annually. On balance, a net of some 1.5 billion tons of carbon were being released into the atmosphere each year, contributing to global warming.

Growing demands

The tropical deforestation in Asia is driven primarily by the fast-growing demand for timber. In Latin America, by contrast, it is the growing demand for soybeans and beef that is deforesting the Amazon. In Africa, it is mostly the gathering of fuelwood and the clearing of new land for agriculture as existing cropland is degraded and abandoned.

Two countries, Indonesia and Brazil, account for more than half of all deforestation. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also high on the list, is a failing state, making forest management difficult.

Included in the Plan B blueprint to stabilise climate [set out in the Earth Polich Institute book listed below] are plans to end net deforestation worldwide and to sequester carbon through a variety of tree planting initiatives and the adoption of improved agricultural land management practices. Today, because the earth's forests are shrinking, they are a major source of CO2. The goal is to expand the earth's tree cover, growing more trees to soak up CO2.

Trees absorb a fifth of carbon emissions pumped out by humans

Trees absorb a fifth of carbon emissions pumped out by humans
By Louise Gray, Envirionment Correspondent
from Telegraph.uk.co

Trees are responsible for absorbing a fifth of man's climate change emissions, scientists have discovered, in the most compelling evidence yet on the need to stop deforestation.

Previous studies on the value of the rainforests had concentrated on South America and Asia.

But new research has included tropical forests in Africa to give the most up-to-date picture of the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by trees. It found 4.8 billion tonnes of CO2 are sucked up every year.

The study suggest trees are currently sucking up a significant amount of global pollution from factories and cars but if carbon emissions continue to increase forests will die or even burn out, causing a "feed back" effect that will accelerate climate change.

The research is being hailed as a breakthrough for climate change science and will be used to put further pressure on world leaders to halt deforestation.

Sustaining Tropical Forests

Sustaining Tropical Forests
from Earth Observatory/NASA

Strategies for preserving tropical forests can operate on local to international scales. On a local scale, governments and non-governmental organizations are working with forest communities to encourage low-impact agricultural activities, such as shade farming, as well as the sustainable harvesting of non-wood forest products such as rubber, cork, produce, or medicinal plants. Parks and protected areas that draw tourists—ecotourism—can provide employment and educational opportunities for local people as well as creating or stimulating related service-sector economies.

On the national scale, tropical countries must integrate existing research on human impacts on tropical ecosystems into national land use and economic development plans. For tropical forests to survive, governments must develop realistic scenarios for future deforestation that take into account what scientists already know about the causes and consequences of deforestation, including the unintended deforestation that results from road-building, accidental fire, selective logging, and economic development incentives such as timber concessions and agricultural subsidies.

Creating Disincentives for Tropical Deforestation: A Myth?

Creating Disincentives for Tropical Deforestation: A Myth?
March 23, 2009 · Filed under Kyoto Protocol and IPCC, Land use and land management     · Tagged AD, Carbon Sequestration, CDM, PES, REDD, Total Economic Value of a Forest, Tropical Deforestation

By Baruani Mshale

Methodological and sovereignty concerns blocked the inclusion of avoided deforestation (AD) in Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) during the first commitment period. AD in the tropics can avoid carbon emissions to the tune of 1.5 billion metric tons annually and provide multiple economic, livelihoods, social, and cultural benefits. To avoid tropical deforestation, we need to address create disincentives for deforestation. To achieve this we need to capture the full economic value of AD. This article attempts to derive an empirical economic model for estimating the net benefit of AD in the tropics. Using this model, I find out total net benefits of AD to be significantly higher when all benefits of AD are included compared to when only carbon sequestration is considered. However revenues from forest conversions such as for soybean plantations are higher than total AD value due to methodological limitations in capturing non-market forest products.