Protecting Earth’s Forests
Jun 16th, 2009 by wwftravel
(c) WWF-Canon / Andre Bartsch
Excerpted from the WWF 2008 Annual Report article “Spare the Forest, Slow the Speed of Climate Change” by Christine Pendzich.
Many of the world’s endangered species depend on forests for survival, as do 60 million indigenous people. Forests provide us with food, medicine, timber and other wood products. They purify the air we breathe, preserve our watersheds, and prevent erosion of our soils.
Forests are also one of the largest terrestrial stores of carbon. Deforestation and degradation of the Earth’s forests release carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to as much as 20 percent of all global carbon emissions, more than any single source other than the combustion of fossil fuels for electricity and transport.
WWF is advocating for the inclusion of forests in the post-Kyoto international climate agreement under an approach called REDD – Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation.
REDD will set the global framework for national and local policies that keep forest-based emissions down and preserve the tropical “greenbelt” encircling the Earth along the equator. This belt encompasses three of the largest remaining rain forests, in the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia.
A number of conditions are necessary for REDD to work effectively: Emissions reduction targets must be established against scientifically measured baselines. Financial and technical assistance must be provided to help developing countries meet the targets. And REDD initiatives must not reduce the imperative for emissions cuts in the energy sector. Perhaps most important, incentives must be developed to ensure that, as countries with high deforestation rates implement REDD initiatives, logging does not just move to countries that have lower deforestation rates.
If the next global treaty provides clear incentives for avoided deforestation, countries and communities in the world’s tropical forest greenbelt may enjoy significant benefits in the form of sustainable financing for protecting and effectively managing their forests.
Travel with WWF through some of the forests we are working to protect: