Earth Protect Blog

Deforestation causes up to 1/5 of current greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.After including their forest emissions, Brazil and Indonesia are, respectively, the world’s 4th and 5th largest greenhouse gas emitters. Reducing rates of deforestation can be one effective way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. And depending how it’s done, it also meets other environmental and development objectives like protecting biodiversity, soils and water supplies.

Currently there are no incentives in climate law for developing countries – where more than 90% of deforestation takes place – to protect their forests.Most forests still being lost are in tropical countries that have no emissions targets.

The problems are aggravated because international trade, including demand from rich nations for cattle and beef, timber, soy and palm oil, creates huge short-term financial incentives for forest destruction. Many forested countries are also poor. The immediate need to generate wealth and reduce rural poverty is high, and the ability to police conservation laws is often low. But it can be done. Take Costa Rica. This small Central American country was once a hotspot of deforestation. Forest cover fell from 80% in the 1950s to just 21% in 1987. But since then, Costa Rica has reversed its forest loss by paying farmers to protect the forests, and is getting extra income from millions of tourists coming to see the wildlife. Today forest cover is back above 50%. Other nations are starting to take action too. Brazil recently announced it would cut its deforestation in the Amazon region by 70% by 2020; Indonesia has committed to stopping the conversion of old growth forest into plantations in Sumatra; and Paraguay confirms the success of its forest policy, reducing deforestation from historic rates of 300,000 hectares per year (in the late 1980s) to less than 50,000 in 2004, and is committed to zero net deforestation by 2020.

For information about the Rainforest Coalition contact www.rainforestcoalition.org