Save the forests, help save the planet – UN agricultural official

With deforestation accounting for over 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, a senior United Nations agricultural official today called for preservation of an ecosystem that can play a major role in fighting global warming.

“Damage to forest ecosystems is affecting everyone in the world through climate change, water scarcity and the loss of biological diversity,” UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Assistant Director General of Forestry Jan Heino said ahead of a meeting later this month of World Forestry Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He called on the 4,500 participants, including delegates of governments, the private sector and environmental organizations from more than 120 countries, expected to attend the 18-23 October meeting to adopt more effective land, crop and livestock management practices.

“Given that agriculture and land use changes such as deforestation contribute about one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, the potential role of these sectors in meeting the climate change challenge is great,” he said in a news release.

The World Forestry Congress, held every six years since 1926 and organized by the government of the host country under FAO auspices, is the most important meeting on the global calendar with regard to the forestry sector. It comes less than two months before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, where it is hoped to forge a new pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol with even steeper reductions of greenhouse gases.

UN agencies have repeatedly pointed to the vital role that forests play in the health of Planet earth. Last month, a campaign backed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to plant 7 billion new trees in a bid to push governments into reaching agreement in Copenhagen achieved its goal.

The milestone was reached on 22 September with the news that China had planted 2.6 billion trees as part of the campaign, bringing the total to 7.3 billion trees planted in 167 countries.

Tree planting remains one of the most cost-effective ways to address climate change, according to UNEP. Trees and forests play a vital role in regulating the climate since they absorb carbon dioxide. Deforestation, in turn, accounts for over 20 per cent of the carbon dioxide humans generate, rivalling the emissions from other sources.

In a related development, efforts to set up a global body to address the loss and degradation of nature-based assets have gathered pace at a UNEP-backed gathering of representatives of nearly 100 governments.

At the Nairobi meeting, there was strong support to establish the Intergovernmental Panel or Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which would catalyze political action as the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has.

“This is the year the world had hoped to have turned the tide on the loss of biodiversity,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “This, however, is unlikely to be achieved which does not undermine the goal but speaks volumes of the need for an effective mechanism which IPBES could represent.”

The gathering revealed that “there is a clear recognition that the status quo is not an option,” he added.