Forests now in the fight against climate change
Deforestation is the second largest cause of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Most tropical forests, are found in developing nations, who have few development options other than converting their trees into commodities, to achieve poverty reduction and eke out a living. The international demand for products like beef, coffee, soy, palm-oil and timber drives deforestation worldwide.
But scientists have clearly stated that we cannot avoid dangerous global warming without action on deforestation, which causes around 20 per cent of all carbon emissions — more than the entire global transport sector put together. Despite this evidence, 13 million hectares of tropical forests continue to be destroyed each year. From that figure 5.5 million hectares are rain forests, which is an area twice the size of Belgium.
Tropical rainforests cover 19 million km of the planet and store a quarter of the carbon on land. Tropical old forests store 120-400 tonnes of carbon per hectare. So protecting old forests reduces CO2 emissions cost effectively and quickly. Historically, developing countries cannot be held accountable for causing climate change. But, the forests in the countries offer one of the cheapest, most efficient and immediate solutions to the world’s rapidly rising carbon emissions which can be seen in the Stern, McKinsey and the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.
Tropical rainforests are unevenly distributed around the world. The largest unbroken stretch is in the Amazon River Basin of South America, which extends over nine countries. Over half lies in Brazil, home to about one third of the world’s remaining tropical rainforests. The Congo Basin’s forests extend over six countries and account for almost 20 per cent. Indonesia’s forests account for 10 per cent and the rest are in South East Asia.
Governments with few other assets offer their rainforests to raise revenue. This is a vicious cycle as billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide go up in smoke from the trees burned in the process and the risk to the world is building up into a climate crisis. Deforestation is the second largest cause of global greenhouse gas emissions. Around 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are from tropical deforestation and another two per cent are from other land use sources. Aircraft emissions contrary to belief are just 2-3 per cent of GHG emissions. The current annual emissions from deforestation are comparable to the total annual CO2 emissions of the US or China. So according to calculations, the total emissions from deforestation in 2008-2012 are expected to equal 40 billion tonnes of CO2 which could raise atmospheric levels of CO2 by -2 parts per million(ppm).
No new technology needed
While energy efficiency measures can be quick measures, to control climate change, more expensive measures like carbon capture and nuclear power will have little effect on significantly reducing GHG emissions in the short-term. In contrast, saving our forests requires no new technology and can begin immediately at a lower cost.
Forests act as giant utilities providing vital ecosystem services to the world. Apart from carbon storage and sequestration, these services include water storage, rainfall generation, climate buffering, bio-diversity maintenance and soil stabilisation. If undisturbed, tropical rain forests can also have a moderating effect on the spread of infectious disease as well. Although we benefit from these services, the wonderful part of a forest is it gives it to us for free.
“Stopping forest emissions is a rare case of a triple win you gain the forest services, you promote the forest economy and you help limit climate change,” reveals Roberto Smeraldi, director, Amigos da Terra an NGO in Brazil. If deforestation is not curbed, there will be severe impacts on food, energy and environmental security. So save our old forests and save ourselves, as it takes a century or more to regenerate a logged forest, and for its carbon stock to return to pre-logged levels.
