By Mary Gagen

The simple truth is that forest protection equals climate protection. Healthy, ancient rainforests safely store billions of tonnes of carbon, making them our most powerful defence against the escalating global climate crisis. Furthermore, these ecosystems provide vital sanctuary for incredibly rare, endangered wildlife species. A major new environmental report confirms that missing our deforestation reduction targets will push the world towards irreversible ecological disaster.

However, despite these stark warnings, destructive industries continue to aggressively clear-fell pristine tropical woodlands. Palm oil plantations, illegal commercial logging, and toxic mining projects actively drive this catastrophic ecocide for corporate profit. Meanwhile, local governments frequently fail to secure vital Indigenous land rights, leaving native forest defenders completely vulnerable to violent exploitation. Therefore, successfully achieving climate protection requires strong international laws. Furthermore, as consumers we can help when we boycott destructive agricultural products and fiercely support Indigenous sovereignty.

Key Takeaways

• Forest protection is crucial for climate health, storing carbon and safeguarding biodiversity.
• Destructive industries continue to clear tropical forests, driven by corporate profit and lack of Indigenous rights.
• Governments are failing to meet deforestation targets, with global losses increasing instead of declining.
• Palm oil agriculture significantly contributes to deforestation, undermining conservation efforts.
• Strong international laws and consumer action can support forest protection and uphold Indigenous sovereignty.

Governments are failing to protect forests

The world is falling behind on commitments to protect and restore forests, according to the recent Forest Declaration Assessment. There is no serious pathway to fixing climate change while forest losses continue at current rates, because global climate targets, sustainable development goals and forest commitments depend on each other.

Around 1.6 billion people live close enough to forests to depend upon them for their livelihoods, and forests suck down about a third of our CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels.

The UN estimates that forests directly generate US$250 billion (£206 billion) in economic activity a year. Their broader, indirect, value might be as much as US$150 trillion (£12 trillion) per year – double the value of global stocks – largely due to their ability to store carbon. Despite this, subsidies still provide incentives for people to convert forests into agriculture.

Big business is failing on forest conservation

There have been multiple global commitments to forests, with hundreds of governments and businesses signing up to pledges named after cities they were signed in: Bonn in 2011, New York in 2014, Glasgow in 2021. But these pledges have not been realised, and deforestation reduction targets are slipping each year.

Global deforestation between 2010 and 2022, in million hectares. Forest Declaration Assessment 2023, CC BY-SA

Global forest loss in 2022 was 6.6 million hectares, an area about the size of Ireland. That’s 21% more than the amount that would keep us on track to meet the target of zero deforestation by 2030, agreed in Glasgow. The loss of tropical rainforest is even more pronounced: 33% over the target needed. Deforestation in 2022 marked a 4% step back on 2021 progress.

Why we are failing to protect forests

There isn’t one simple explanation for why forests are still disappearing. Factors include a lack of Indigenous Peoples rights to their territories, forest-harming financial and trade systems, and the physical effects of climate change and fire.

Palm oil deforestation undermines forest conservation

The lack of consistent and secure land tenure rights for indigenous peoples and local communities threatens forests and the people who depend upon them. Across the tropics, where forests are under their stewardship, the evidence is clear: deforestation and degradation are lower.

A lack of forest protection for short-term gain

Subsidies that can lead to deforestation are worth between US$381 billion (£314 billion) and US$1 trillion (£825 billion) per year. These could include handing out public land to settlers, building roads or pipes to enable industrial-scale farming, keeping taxes on agricultural products artificially low, or subsidies on specific crops grown on formerly forested lands.

There are also illegal activities. By one recent estimate, 69% of the tropical forest cleared for agriculture between 2013 and 2019 violated national laws and regulations. The illegal timber trade is estimated to be worth US$150 billion per year globally.

There is simply not enough money going to support forests. Public finance for forests is less than 1% ”) of the amount invested in activities that are environmentally harmful or incentivise deforestation.

Around the globe, forests are also being harmed by climate change and shifting patterns of wildfires. Climate change is causing more fires, including in forests that do not usually burn, and producing hotter fires which cause long-term damage even in fire-adapted forests. The length and severity of droughts is increasing, inducing water stress which kills trees. A combination of climate-related stresses means that trees in the tropics, temperate and boreal forests, are experiencing dying younger and massive “die offs” are happening more often.

If the effects of fire and climate change continue post-Anthropocene forests are likely to be smaller, simpler in species, emptied of wildlife and restricted to steeper ground where agriculture is less favoured.

Computer simulations model a grave future if we don’t change course

Computer simulations of the future climate, known as climate models, depict very different outcomes for forests depending on whether we limit global warming or not. If emissions are reigned in and we leave some cultivated land to nature, 350 million hectares of forest could return by 2100. That’s an area roughly the size of India. However, in a future where emissions remain high and land use doesn’t change, the models suggest a loss of a further 500 million hectares of forest by 2100.

Forest protection required decisive action

The new Forest Pathways Report I worked on sets out an action plan for getting back on track. It asks global leaders and businesses to:

• Accelerate the recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ right to own and manage their lands, territories and resources.
• Provide more money, both public and private, to support sustainable forest economies.
• Reform the rules of global trade that harm forests, getting deforesting commodities out of global supply chains, and removing barriers to forest-friendly goods.
• Shift towards nature-based and bio economies.

Written by Mary Gagen, Professor of Physical Geography, Swansea University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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This post was previously published on Palm Oil Detectives.

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