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Tropical Deforestation and Global Warming Linkage
By Alan Gray, NewsBlaze
In the wake of the dire report about climate change released last week by the White House, the global environmental organization Rare), says it is reminding the public that it is as critical to focus on stopping the destruction of the world's remaining forests as it is to change our behavior here in the U.S.
"Even if the U.S. makes an 80% reduction - an heroic achievement - from current emission levels by 2050," cautions Rare CEO Brett Jenks, "this won't amount to a global warming solution, because the developing world has to act, as well."
The organization illustrates the relationship between deforestation in the developing tropics and climate change.
Global Warming Facts: Why the developing tropics are crucial to mitigating climate change
RARE Factsheet about Global Deforestation and Climate Change and What Can Be Done About it
Last week, the White House released a report by the U.S. Global Change Research Program forecasting potential devastating impacts of global warming that states "sizable early cuts in (carbon) emissions would significantly reduce the pace and the overall amount of climate change."
While it is imperative that Americans and the developed world take every domestic action possible to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, it is equally critical that the public stays mindful that the destruction of the world's remaining forests is a major factor leading to global warming. Collaborating with local peoples in distant forests needs to be on the public's radar, too.
Rare is currently running 11 'Pride' campaigns in Indonesia to address forest conservation, including at the high priority Lamandau Wildlife Reserve (in Borneo), which is home to nine of Borneo's 13 species of primates, including about 100 ex-captive orangutans. These Rare Pride campaigns focus on inspiring local communities to change their behavior to reduce forest clearing.
A 'carbon offset' project is currently under discussion for 62,000 acres of forest land adjacent to the Lamandau Reserve, which would be spearheaded by Rare and the Clinton Climate Initiative-Forestry Program in Southeast Asia. Local partners leading work at the site are the Indonesian Orangutan Foundation and the Orangutan Foundation UK.
Rare here provides the facts about global deforestation and climate change, and what can be done about it.
Facts about Global Deforestation and Climate Change:
Almost 20% of all global CO2 emissions are caused by deforestation;
25% of all emissions reductions called for by 2050 could be achieved by conserving and restoring tropical forests;
People who are cutting down trees (i.e.-illegal loggers in Borneo, soy growers in Brazil, subsistence farmers in Laos) together send as much carbon into the atmosphere as do all the activities of the entire U.S. (factories, vehicles, buildings, farming, power plants, etc.);
Standing forests provide invaluable social goods: clean air and water, biodiversity, climate regulation;
Every four hours the world loses tropical forest equivalent in size to the island of Manhattan;
At present rates, about 13 million hectares (or 5.25 million acres) of forest are being destroyed every year; The negative effects of clearing forests, in addition to climate change, include: endangered species grow more endangered; others go extinct; rivers fill with silt; water supplies are diminished or dry up; fires spread; poverty worsens;
1.6 billion people in the developing tropics depend on the world's forests for their income, food and fuel;
By 2050, it's estimated that 9 billion people will inhabit the planet (about 40% more than today). Eight billion of them will likely live in developing countries. Most of these are located in the tropics, where the most important-and most threatened-forests are found;
If current cutting rates continue (and, if unchecked, they're sure to grow), economically accessible mature natural forests in Papua New Guinea will be gone in 16 years or less; Indonesia and Myanmar in about 10 years; the Philippines and Thailand have already logged out most of their natural forests;.
By conserving just ONE acre of threatened tropical forest - the yearly emissions of 40cars, trucks and SUV's can be offset;
2 trillion dollars per year is the cost to the global economy of burning and clearing forests, as valued through lost fresh water, food and timber, and carbon reduction.
What Can Be Done About Preventing Global Deforestation:
Today's conservationists must redefine the traditional adversarial relationship between tropical forest conservation and the world's economy. (The current paradigm almost always values forests only when we cut them down);
People living in or near protected forest must be brought into a conservation plan-as significant players- that helps them to be more effective stewards of the land to advance both their own interests and larger conservation goals; The 'cavalry on the horizon' takes the form of the emerging carbon market; carbon pollution soon will have a worldwide price tag attached to it;
The world's treaty makers will create a commodity called 'forest carbon.' Local peoples won't have to liquidate forest resources just to survive;
It's projected that the global carbon market will be a $20-75 billion business by 2020; potentially $100 billion by 2030;
As little as $5 billion could substantively address deforestation in the eight tropical countries responsible for 70 percent of the world's rampant deforestation;.
The developed world will need to learn to reward people to leave forests stand, and embrace the idea that security in the developed North means development in the tropical South, and that our fates are indelibly intertwined.
RARE(www.RareConservation.org) is the leader in social marketing for global biodiversity conservation - with a successful track record in more than 50 countries to date. The non-profit based in Arlington, Virginia, trains and supports leaders from the world's top environmental organizations, local grassroots groups, and governments.
To date, Rare has trained 158 local leaders in the developing world, whose campaigns have influenced more than 6.8 million people living in over 2,400 remote communities.
Rare's proven model used to change attitudes and behaviors about conservation at the local level is called a "Pride" campaign, so-named because it inspires people to take pride in the natural assets that make their communities valuable and to take action to protect them.
Many of the world's largest conservation groups, as well as nations in the developing world, have requested Rare's services to help build stronger local community support for their work. They include The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Audubon, the United Nations Environment Programme, the national governments of China, Mexico, Peru, Indonesia, and many others.
Dr. D. Andrew Wardell, Regional Director of the Clinton Climate Initiative-Forestry, has said, "Forest carbon markets will depend significantly on the support of forest-dependent communities in developing countries. Rare has a key role to play in ensuring this support."
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