Forest Destruction Can Be Cut in Half

The need to slow down destruction of the world’s remaining forests to prevent the planet dangerously overheating has long been acknowledged, but has proved impossible to achieve.

Now a group of scientists has reviewed the state of the forests where the destruction is greatest, in the tropics, and has concluded that the rate of deforestation could be halved in five years – drastically cutting the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.

Their paper in Global Change Biology says Brazil has proved that the rate of deforestation can be cut dramatically, while at the same time allowing an increase in agricultural output.  This is significant because Brazil has been cutting down forests faster than any other country in the world.

The scientists say that if Brazil − which has large areas of lawless territory − can slow the destruction, then anyone can.

However, they are not suggesting it will be easy.  Short-term financial gains, which do not take into account environmental costs or the long-term interests of the country involved, still dominate, so destruction could increase again.

In fact their fears proved only too real.  The latest figures show that deforestation in the Amazon has begun to increase again, by 16% so far in 2015, reflecting cuts in funding for the regulatory authorities.
...
By 2012 Brazil had cut its emissions from deforestation by 80%.  Despite this, it still had the highest forest destruction in the world, but that could be cut further if the political will was there.

Second to Brazil is Indonesia, which managed to reduce emissions between 2012 and 2013, but these have since risen again because of disastrous fires.  The government is currently clamping down on peatland development to try to reduce this problem.

Indonesia was also one of 15 tropical countries which last year signed the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF). That includes the goal of halving natural forest loss by 2020.

Significant increases
In addition to the challenge that Indonesia faces in achieving that reduction, the other 14 countries collectively almost doubled their carbon emissions from tropical deforestation − from 12% of the total in 2001 to 23% in 2013.  Of these 14 countries, the biggest contributors were the Democratic Republic of Congo and Peru, and there were also significant increases in Vietnam and Liberia.  Only Mexico dropped significantly.

Read more at Forest Destruction Can Be Cut in Half