Forestry into the agreement
A future international climate agreement must include forest conservation, but this must occur in addition to pronounced emission cuts in other sectors.
The goal to keep the global temperature increase at two degrees Celsius requires very rapid cuts in emissions. Careful forestry management can make a contribution to this goal. While it may take a long time before widespread implementation of climate-friendly technology is a reality, the chain saw or bulldozer that is attacking the rainforest can be stopped straight away.
It is in the tropics that the forests are disappearing rapidly: about 130 000 square kilometres are destroyed every year. Like the Arctic, the rainforests are very vulnerable to climate change. A rise in temperature of between one and three degrees will turn large parts of the Amazon, the largest rainforest in the world, into a savannah. It is estimated that an emissions reduction of seven billion tonnes of CO2 equivalents is attainable by 2015 through measures to reduce deforestation. Within the existing international climate convention there are no initiatives or mechanisms for reducing deforestation, even though this sector is responsible for nearly a fifth of the world’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. The renewed agreement that will run from 2013 must encompass emissions from deforestation. This requires commitments from heavily forested developing countries and financial support from industrial nations.
