Cutting Down Trees to Save the Rainforest - Lessons in Sustainable Forestry

Sustainable Forestry Rain Forest
From Eco Preservation Society

Do Trees Grow on Money?

Do Trees Grow on Money?

Rainforests are back on the global agenda in a big way. Governments now recognize the importance of protecting tropical forests in order to avoid dangerous climate change, and there is now much debate. As governments try to thrash out the details of a new international agreement, expected to be signed at the end of 2009, they are discussing how best to include measures to save rainforests, and thereby address one of the major causes of climate change. Worldwide, forest destruction generates more greenhouse gas emissions each year than do all the trains, planes and cars on the planet. So if we are to tackle global warming, there is an urgent need to find ways to reduce the 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by forest destruction each year, and to keep the remaining forests standing.

We need to protect the planet's remaining forests not only to stop climate change from getting worse, but to ensure that we can withstand the impacts of global warming. Healthy forests absorb and store vast quantities of carbon, helping to regulate temperature and generate rain. When they are destroyed, this carbon is released into the atmosphere. They also fight erosion and protect underground water supplies. Thus keeping forests standing is both a critical part of mitigating climate change and of adapting to a warmer world.