Forests are victims of quick and unsustainable profits

We understand much better the importance of forests and forest-dwelling people in the challenge of climate change. In fact, hundreds of millions of hectares of forest have been lost in recent decades. Forests are an important part of stabilizing soil and wetland ecosystems, supporting wildlife and plant diversity, and are a source of carbon dioxide absorption. Approximately one-third of the Earth's surface is covered by forests, which provide a wealth of essential materials, services, beauty, and natural resources, and support the livelihoods of millions of people.

FAO data (2020) show that in the 30 years from 1990 to 2020, the world's forests have decreased by approximately 178 million hectares (an area roughly the size of Libya). The rate of deforestation has slowed in the last decade, but its distribution has become highly regional and geographically specific. According to FAO statistics, while in the 1990s 7.8 million hectares of forest were lost annually, in the last decade this amount has decreased, to about 4.7 million hectares per year.

But deforestation rates have accelerated in Latin America and South Africa, while in Europe and much of Asia, forest conservation plans have become more stringent. But the figures still show that even though deforestation rates have slowed over the past 30 years, an estimated 420 million hectares of forest have been lost to land conversion since 1990.

The spread of the global pandemic has shown how essential it is to protect forests, even in a less common case where the boundary between wildlife and human life is not blending. Most of the terrestrial biodiversity lives in forests. Forests contain 60,000 different tree species, 80% of amphibian species, 75% of bird species and 68% of mammal species on Earth.

Research shows that fragmentation and loss of forest density, as well as the removal of old-growth forest trees, greatly affect the rate of forest destruction, its effectiveness in maintaining soil moisture and groundwater resources, and its ability to provide habitat for wildlife. On the other hand, thin and fragmented forests are both more susceptible to contamination and fire.

According to FAO statistics, 34.8 million forest plots worldwide, ranging from 1 to 680 million hectares, are needed to reconnect fragmented forests that urgently need extensive restoration.

The State of the World's Forest Resources Assessment, published by FAO in 2020, found that despite a slowdown in deforestation over the past decade, approximately 10 million hectares are lost each year due to conversion to agriculture and other types of forest exploitation.

In the area of ​​land-use activities, agriculture has overtaken deforestation as the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the past decade. This is further highlighted by a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published in Global Change Biology. This highlights the emerging trend in food security and its combination with the need for more agricultural land, and the impact of climate change on deforestation for agriculture. There are no official statistics on how many forest fires are deliberately started by human agents and how many are simply set for the purpose of land acquisition and conversion. But perhaps this example can shed some light on the situation. In Italy, in the last two decades, strict enforcement of the law prohibiting the use of any form of land in forested areas that have been affected by fires for a century has been instrumental in restoring forests and has drastically reduced the number and incidence of fires organized by the garbage mafia in southern Italy.

The issue of linking forest conservation and management in the agricultural sector is so important that, for example, in the climate negotiations process that focused on forest conservation-focused management programs at COP21 in Paris, researchers noted that representatives of agricultural reform and improvement projects should not be ignored in policymaking and planning.

The expansion of agricultural land to produce the food we need or the animals in our food chain explains well how even research, investment and large-scale projects often serve to gain more space for cultivated land. A fact that overshadows the assessment of the impact of agriculture and the provision of water and land for it, even at the cost of destroying natural resources, and ignores the indirect responsibility of large-scale industrial agriculture. Thus, the statistics clearly show that deforestation has occurred more for agricultural purposes than for the timber and other raw materials industries.

Recent victories in protecting forests to halt and control the impact of climate change are almost as easily defeated by efforts to satisfy the world’s growing appetite, especially for meat. This is in addition to the importance of livestock itself being a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions: FAO research data shows a 13% increase since 1990. Global meat production increased by almost 70% between 1990 and 2012; while milk and egg production increased by 39% and 93% respectively.

The causes of deforestation are many. In South America and Africa, where developing countries are dynamic but with high rates of poverty and inequality, statistics show that governments prefer to cut down trees to make room for short-term profitable activities. In fact, there are a set of social, political and economic issues that cause these regions of the world to cause extensive damage to forests. In practice, one of the main causes of deforestation in these countries is deforestation promoted by farmers. In developing countries, it is estimated that agribusiness is responsible for 40% of deforestation on average. The construction of roads and infrastructure, or deforestation for livelihood activities, such as the use of forest wood as a cheap energy source, can also be damaging, in addition to the entry of human life into forested areas.

Some countries, notably India, are opposed to discussing the impacts of agriculture at the UN climate summit because they fear a decline in agricultural production.

A combination of economic inequality and climate injustice must also be attributed to deforestation. Unemployment and poverty of rural residents living in forest areas and the loss of farmers' crops on the one hand, and the lack of sustainable planning for the use of sustainable technologies in the management of water and soil resources for agriculture on the other hand, as well as the mismanagement of food waste and its storage and distribution methods at the end of the production chain are also important issues that have received very little attention. In fact, it can be said that deforestation and the provision of more land and the monopolization of more water resources have replaced the management of cultivated land and control over the process of cultivation and distribution of agricultural products. A shortcut and less expensive for governments, but very harmful and costly for the health of the planet and its inhabitants.

Source: HRANA