The most effective weapons in the fight against climate change – a tree. However, widespread land clearing raises local temperatures, and rising global temperatures are, in turn, triggering more wildfires. Yet, big forest countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) can limit these risks by being major players in using nature to fight climate change, by soaking up excess carbon dioxide (CO2).
Dr Deborah Lawrence, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia in the United States told The Straits Times in an e-mail that the tropical forest countries should be the highest priority because it also acts as a global air conditioner.
Trees soak up large amounts of planet-warming CO2 as they grow and produce oxygen in return. On a large scale, forests are huge carbon stores and help regulate the climate by capturing and releasing water for rivers and clouds. Forests also provide livelihoods for millions of people in local communities.
Scientists say that if we get the policies right, forests, along with grasslands, mangroves and wetlands – even carefully managed farmlands – can become powerful tools that can soak up more CO2 and buy time in the quest to avoid dangerous climate change.
Plants and soils absorb about 20% of mankind’s greenhouse gas emissions, though this is offset by emissions from land use change, including land clearing and agricultural activities, a study published last year (2017) in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences said.
But in their analysis, the authors estimated that stopping deforestation, restoring forests and improving forestry practices could cost-effectively remove seven billion tonnes of CO2 annually, or as much as eliminating 1.5 billion cars.
With mixed results, some banks and lending agencies have supported market mechanisms that put a value on every tonne of CO2 a protected area of forest locks away. Costa Rica pays landowners to replant trees as well as keep trees standing in watersheds for hydro dams.
Last year (2017) was the second-highest on record for tree cover loss in the tropics, down just slightly from 2016. The tropics lost an area of forest the size of Vietnam in 2016-2017. Also in last year, tropical forest loss totalled 15.8 million hectures, or about the size of Bangladesh.
The main causes are clearing for agriculture and more severe and frequent fires and storms.
Read more here.
Source: The Straits Times, 9 October 2018