Deforestation and climate change
Deforestation is one of the main causes of climate change. It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, after fossil fuel combustion. Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon. It used to account for more than 20% of carbon dioxide emissions, but it’s currently somewhere around the 10% mark. By 2008, deforestation was 12% of total CO2, or 15% if peatlands are included. These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use.[1]
Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces, temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 °F (0.85 °C) between 1880 to 2012, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In the Northern Hemisphere, 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years.[2]
Contents
Effect on climate change
Decrease in biodiversity
A 2007 study conducted by the National Science Foundation found that biodiversity and genetic diversity are codependent—that diversity among species requires diversity within a species, and vice versa. "If any one type is removed from the system, the cycle can break down, and the community becomes dominated by a single species."[3]
Counteracting climate change
Reforestation
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Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands that have been depleted, usually through deforestation. It is the reestablishment of forest cover either naturally or artificially.[4] Similar to the other methods of forestation, reforestation can be very effective because a single tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and can sequester 1 ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old.[5]
Afforestation
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Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no forest.[4]
China
Although China has set official goals for reforestation, these goals were set for an 80 year time horizon and were not significantly met by 2008. China is trying to correct these problems with projects such as the Green Wall of China, which aims to replant forests and halt the expansion of the Gobi Desert. A law promulgated in 1981 requires that every school student over the age of 11 plant at least one tree per year. But average success rates, especially in state-sponsored plantings, remains relatively low. And even the properly planted trees have had great difficulty surviving the combined impacts of prolonged droughts, pest infestation and fires. Nonetheless, China currently has the highest afforestation rate of any country or region in the world, with 4.77 million hectares (47,000 square kilometers) of afforestation in 2008.[6]
Japan
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The primary goal of afforestation projects in Japan is to develop the forest structure of the nation and to maintain the biodiversity found in the Japanese wilderness. The Japanese temperate rainforest is scattered throughout the Japanese archipelago and is home to many endemic species that are not naturally found anywhere else. As development of the country’s caused a decline in forest cover, a reduction in biodiversity was seen in those areas.[7]
Agroforestry
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Agroforestry or agro-sylviculture is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use systems.[8]
Projects and foundations
Arbor Day Foundation
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Founded in 1972, the centennial of the first Arbor Day observance in the 19th century, the Foundation has grown to become the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees, with over one million members, supporters, and valued partners.[9] They work on projects focused on planting trees around campuses, low-income communities, and communities that have been affected by natural disasters among other places.
Billion Tree Campaign
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The Billion Tree Campaign was launched in 2006 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a response to the challenges of global warming, as well as to a wider array of sustainability challenges, from water supply to biodiversity loss.[10] Its initial target was the planting of one billion trees in 2007. Only one year later in 2008, the campaign's objective was raised to 7 billion trees—a target to be met by the climate change conference that was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009. Three months before the conference, the 7 billion planted trees mark had been surpassed. In December 2011, after more than 12 billion trees had been planted, UNEP formally handed management of the program over to the not-for-profit Plant-for-the-Planet initiative, based in Munich, Germany.[11]
The Amazon Fund (Brazil)
Considered the largest reserve of biological diversity in the world, the Amazon Basin is also the largest Brazilian biome, taking up almost half the nation’s territory. The Amazon Basin corresponds to two fifths of South America’s territory. Its area of approximately seven million square kilometers covers the largest hydrographic network on the planet, through which runs about one fifth of the fresh water on the world’s surface. Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is a major cause to climate change due to the decreasing number of trees available to capture increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.[12]
The Amazon Fund is aimed at raising donations for non-reimbursable investments in efforts to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, as well as to promote the preservation and sustainable use of forests in the Amazon Biome, under the terms of Decree N.º 6,527, dated August 1, 2008.[13] The Amazon Fund supports the following areas: management of public forests and protected areas, environmental control, monitoring and inspection, sustainable forest management, economic activities created with sustainable use of forests, ecological and economic zoning, territorial arrangement and agricultural regulation, preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and recovery of deforested areas. Besides those, the Amazon Fund may use up to 20% of its donations to support the development of systems to monitor and control deforestation in other Brazilian biomes and in biomes of other tropical countries.[13]
See also
- Boreal forest of Canada
- Effects of global warming on human health#Deforestation
- Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
References
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