Urgency
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.
Can we replant the planet's rainforests?
Reforestation efforts are sprouting up all around the world. Numerous conservation groups are working to preserve, enlarge and connect the world's rainforests. Let's take a closer look at some of those projects.
Rwanda's government and various ecological groups are paying special attention to the Gishwati Forest Reserve. Once a vast rainforest, activities such as deforestation and refugee resettlement reduced it to a fraction of its original size around the turn of the century [source: Science Daily]. Since then, reforestation has somewhat increased the size of the forest, but it remains a sliver of its original size.
Palm Oil Growth Damages Rainforest Environment
The rise in the use of biofuels has encouraged the growth of palm oil
production. But oil palm plantations have negative environmental
impacts on tropical rainforests.
Substituting fossil fuels for transportation with biofuels is just one means of protecting the environment from climate change effects. Palm oil production is surging, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia, to satisfy this need. The environmental benefits of using palm oil as an alternative source of energy may be more than offset by the negative environmental effects such production has on tropical rainforests. A policy brief issued by the OECD in November 2007, entitled “Biofuels for Transport: Policies and Possibilities” addressed this problem when it stated, “This is already becoming an issue in certain countries in South-East Asia where the expansion of palm oil plantations largely comes at the expense of existing forest area and biodiversity”.
