by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
According to a survey Over 90% of The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) members believe that developing countries should be compensated by the international community for preserving their forests.
This online survey by the Institution asked ‘Should developing countries be compensated by the international community for preserving their forests?’ 869 members responded, with 92% agreeing that countries should be.
Therefore the CIWEM stresses that the Copenhagen summit in December must include reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation scheme (REDD) in the future climate framework.
Every hour, 2,500 hectares of rainforest are lost to deforestation, causing an estimated 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. That is about the same as the total emissions from the US and more than the entire global transportation sector. Legal deforestation takes place because countries can earn money and create jobs by selling trees and clearing land for agriculture. These are legitimate objectives for governments to pursue, but forests store vast quantities of carbon dioxide which is released back into the atmosphere when they are destroyed.
The global economy does not value the services that forests provide when trees are kept alive, so under the Kyoto Protocol it is more valuable to cut forests down than to leave them standing. Correcting this market failure will require recognising that protecting rainforests is not only an environmental concern but an economic issue that cuts to the core of a nation's development. Therefore, CIWEM believes that this issue needs sustained attention from the highest levels of governments.
Justin Taberham, CIWEM’s Director of Policy, says: “Scientists have warned that without measures to keep forests intact, we stand no chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. There is a global benefit in maintaining forests so it makes sense to compensate developing countries for the economic benefits they forgo by preserving their forests. The UK Government must show strong leadership at the forthcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen and include REDD compensation in future climate change strategies.”
But we must also consider that many of the forests in the developed countries are also under constant threat such as with Canada's boreal that are being destroyed by the likes of Kimberly Clark in order to turn the pulp from those trees into toilet paper and paper towels.
Therefore, says the Romani Forestry Association, we must also make every effort to keep our forests in the developed nations healthy and productive and must ensure that they do not fall prey to scrupulous companies that all but clear fell and then leave devastation.
Every tree lost is part of the lungs of the Planet lost. Without trees we cannot live on Earth and hence we must look after our trees and plant more to boot.
The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is an independent professional body and a registered charity, advancing the science and practice of water and environmental management for a clean, green and sustainable world, www.ciwem.org.
© 2009
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