First of 3 parts
Every year, humanity clears 10 million hectares of forests, an area equivalent to the size of Portugal.
The loss of these ecosystems is devastating for wildlife and the billions of people who rely on forests for food, water and other essentials.
But deforestation has another, often-overlooked peril: it is stoking climate change. The felling of trees in tropical areas alone releases more than 5.6 billion tons of planet-warming greenhouse gasses every year. That is more than four times the combined total of aviation and shipping.
As countries prepare to update their national climate pledges in 2025, a key part of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, experts are urging them to include concrete targets to end deforestation and restore forests. Without those provisions, experts say, countries will be hard pressed to rein in a climate crisis that is shattering temperature records and unleashing a maelstrom of extreme weather around the world.
“Not only do forests support rich biodiversity and provide for human societies and economies but they play a vital role in stabilizing our climate,” says Mirey Atallah, head of the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience branch of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). “If we are to have any hope of slowing climate change, we must halt deforestation.”
(To be continued) UNEP News
