Over 100 World Leaders Commit to Ending Deforestation by 2030
Over 100 world leaders committed Monday evening, November 1st, to ending the process of deforestation and land degradation by the end of the current decade.
A joint statement released at the twenty-sixth UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow was accompanied by leaders of countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which collectively account for 85 percent of the world’s forests.
A statement released by the British Prime Minister’s office on behalf of world leaders states that the declaration covers more than 13 million square miles.
Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister, described the statement as unprecedented and said: “We will have this opportunity to end the current course of history, a course in which humans are conquerors of nature, when we should be guardians of nature.”
To achieve this goal, a range of governments and private companies have designed initiatives including commitments to spend billions of dollars on sustainable agriculture and forest protection by indigenous peoples in the regions.
According to an assessment by the nonprofit World Resources Institute, forests absorb approximately 30 percent of carbon dioxide emissions released. Forests remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and prevent global warming.
However, despite all this, this natural climate shield is rapidly being destroyed. The world lost approximately 258,000 square kilometers of its forests in 2020 alone, an area larger than Britain.
Monday’s agreement is an important complement to an agreement reached in 2014 in New York among 40 countries regarding forest protection, and brings humanity closer than ever to securing the necessary resources for this effort.
Under this agreement, 12 countries including Britain have committed to providing 8.75 billion pounds ($12 billion) to developing countries for forest protection during 2021-2025.
More than 30 private investors have also committed 5.3 billion pounds in this regard. Additionally, five countries including Britain and the United States and a group of international charitable organizations announced they will allocate a budget of 1.7 billion dollars for forest protection to indigenous peoples of the regions.
Environmental activists say that indigenous peoples are the best guardians of forests, but they often face violence from loggers and land raiders.
Source: Radio Farda
