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Why Forest Loss Must Be Stopped

Why Forest Loss Must Be Stopped

Forests are the “largest terrestrial store of carbon” according to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), and deforestation is responsible for an estimated 20 percent of current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Every year, 32 million acres of forest are lost, equivalent to 36 football fields a minute. Globally forests contain an estimated 283 gigatons of carbon.

A WWF policy paper on deforestation released this year lists recommendations for stopping deforestation. The first priority needs to be “immediate and substantial capacity building in key host countries,” according to the policy paper. Any market-based offset program should include a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. Another priority is “substantial funding for capacity building and pilot programs” this year.

Stopping forest loss and degradation is the most cost effective method of mitigating climate change, according to a Swedish report, Gold in Green Forests, issued by WWF-Sweden. “Sweden should follow the examples set by its northern neighbors in developing systems to halt deforestation,” said WWF CEO General Lasse Gustavsson.. “One Swedish krona to stem deforestation results in the same emissions reductions as five kronor for the controversial carbon capture and storage technique.”

“Time is passing and the possibility of reaping the positive climate effects that a stop in the loss of forests entails is decreasing rapidly. Complex social, economic and ecological are involved which is why a global cooperation for REDD must be carefully prepared,” said Stefan Henningsson, Climate Director, WWF Sweden.

The Commission on Climate and Tropical Forests, a bipartisan commission, released a report last week which called for $1 billion before 2012 to slow deforestation in developing countries, and $14 billion annually by 2020. Private sources would supply at least two-thirds of the funding.

“Slowing deforestation is the most cost-effective choice of all the carbon emissions curbing actions,” said John Podesta, the commission’s co-chair. “We need to protect our forests. Our common future depends on it.”

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14 comments

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10:53PM PST on Mar 7, 2013

Thank you.

10:52PM PST on Mar 7, 2013

Thank you.

10:52PM PST on Mar 7, 2013

Thank you.

10:51PM PST on Mar 7, 2013

Thank you.

10:49PM PST on Mar 7, 2013

Thank you.

3:02AM PDT on Aug 1, 2011

Trees and other plants are very important. A world without them and without animals is it that what we want? Hopefully not. In my case, i love trees, plants and animals.
Other animals and plants have to go only because "we" humans do not want to share the world with other life forms, these life forms "we" would not eat (vegetarian food is not a bad idea, or eating with conscience as the so called primitive cultures did and still do, if they still exist. No meat/fish every day). "We" destroy everything around us and "we" forget, that everything is important to survive, too.

As little child i thought that rain is when God and the angels cry - because "we" humans have forgotten that we need this "intelligence", someone who could help... if "we" hadn't turned away for many centuries ago...

"Only when the last tree has been cut down; Only when the last river has been poisoned; Only when the last fish has been caught; Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten." (Native American proverb)

"We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not yet learned the simple art of living together as brothers." (Martin Luther King)

8:56AM PDT on Oct 12, 2009

Forests are not just "carbon stores" but are home to indigenous peoples and native species; and the plants themselves have an intrinsic value. It is necessary to avoid tropical timber and furniture made from it. Palm oil is more difficult to avoid since it is often incorrectly labelled as "vegetable oil". It is unacceptable that products aimed at vegans and other caring consumers contain it. Perhaps one can write to companies that sell or use tropical timber or palm oil in products; even just one such letter or e-mail when the opportunity arises. There are campaigns on forest issues at www.forests.org

8:33AM PDT on Oct 12, 2009

It is not only those hacking down trees who are causing deforestation. Many of Europes forests are being rapidly depleted through the atmospheric pollution, stemming from power-generation, industrial and transport emissions, that is killing the trees. Action needs to be taken quickly before the destruction become irreversible.

7:58AM PDT on Oct 12, 2009

In other words, Brasil is making a lot of money now by cutting down their forests, so we need to give them even more money to get them to stop. I think the 2016 Olympics award should have been tied to their proven environmental cooperation!

7:57AM PDT on Oct 12, 2009

Anything released via WWFN is contaminated. This outfit has amassed huge tracts of land worldwide, which it aims to 'return to nature'. Lovely, oooh - except that we humas (a truly endangered species being hunted and slaughtered by the likes of Elitist WWFN) are to be herded into 'sustainable communities' i.e. concrete cages known as cities - prisons. This is all the better to manage and control the depopulation agenda (aka genocidal slaughter) of us 'useless eaters'. Has anyone spotted the contradiction of carbon tax emissions on the one hand and saving the Earth's carbon producing forests on the other? Yes, carbon is essential to life. Those responsible for the end of deforestation are those who profit from deforestation. Confused, you will be. By taxing people for their 'carbon footprints' (huge joke) they are being taxed for breathing - the cost of living has never been so high for all but the psychopaths running the WWFN etc. In 1976 The Club of Rome hit upon the best method to radically reduce the human population permanently - this was 'global warming/climate change'. Working isn't it? It's an enormous hoax which threatens to annihilate the entire species leaving only the Elites with free will and the right to reproduce. Ghastly prospect but becoming reality through programming and ignorance. Oh, by the way, WWFN were at the centre of the Rwhanda massacres - that's what they use the land for - programming assassins. WWFN murder people under the guise of 'poaching'.

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Judy Molland An award-winning writer and teacher, Judy Molland is also an avid hiker, backpacker, and nature... more
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