Benefits to the Planet
Study highlights forest protected areas as a critical strategy for slowing climate change
"Deforestation leads to about 15 percent of
the world's greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the cars,
trucks, trains, ships, and planes on earth. If we fail to reduce it,
we'll fail to stabilize our climate," said Taylor Ricketts, director of
World Wildlife Fund's science program and lead author of the study.
"Our paper emphasizes that creating and strengthening indigenous lands
and other protected areas can offer an effective means to cut emissions
while garnering numerous additional benefits for local people and
wildlife."
The authors highlight analyses showing that since 2002, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been 7 to 11 times lower inside of indigenous lands and other protected areas than elsewhere. Simulation models suggest that protected areas established between 2003 and 2007 could prevent an estimated area of 100,000 square miles of deforestation through 2050. That is roughly the size of the state of Colorado, representing enough carbon to equal 1/3 of the world's annual CO2 emissions. Within these efforts, location matters; protected areas in regions that face deforestation pressures would be most effective at truly reducing emissions.
The Importance of Rainforests
The beauty, majesty, and timelessness of a primary rainforest are
indescribable. It is impossible to capture on film, to describe in words, or to
explain to those who have never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in
the heart of a primary rainforest.
Rainforests have evolved over millions of years to turn into the
incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store
of living and breathing renewable natural resources that for eons, by virtue of
their richness in both animal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of
resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have
included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw
materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the
forest. However, the inner dynamics of a tropical rainforest is an intricate
and fragile system. Everything is so interdependent that upsetting one part can
lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken
only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to last
forever.
Reversing forest decline can combat climate change
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.
Trees absorb a fifth of carbon emissions pumped out by humans
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.
Sustaining Tropical Forests
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.
