United Nations Radio

Rain Forest

PRES: The latest reports on climate change are now identifying deforestation as the main culprit for emitting carbon gases and speeding up global warming.

Deforestation now is responsible for 20% of global emissions compared to the 14% caused by the transport and industry sector. Jocelyne Sambira reports.

NARR: Just one day of deforestation is equivalent to the carbon footprint of flying 8 million people to New York, says Andrew Mitchell, an expert on forest canopies and climate change. Trees are 50 percent carbon. When they are cut and burned, the carbon they store is released into the atmosphere. When the trees are preserved, they form a protective layer around the Earth. Peter Minang, a Kenyan scientist with the World Agri-forestry Center, is a man who has spent most of his life studying trees. He gives us an idea of how important forests can be in reducing emissions.

MINANG: One way would be for the forest to be protected, and so it can remove carbon from the atmosphere. The second way is that you could also have forests being preserved, so that they are not cleared and the carbon has been stopped that is emitted into the atmosphere

NARR: Alf Wills, Deputy Director for International Cooperation in South Africa says preserving forests in Africa could be challenging but believes it could be done with a little financial help.

WILLS: Large communities, poor communities, are dependent on forest resources for their livelihood. So, it becomes extremely important, if we are going to be limiting future emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, to seriously address in the future climate change regime incentives for sustainable forest management and forest conservation and efforts to reduce emissions from forests as well as forest degradation. So as the second largest sink in the world, we have a very significant place in the forest story.

NARR: Tropical forests are often referred to as the lungs of the planet, and 50% of life on Earth is found there. Africa is one of the continents with a large forest cover, from the great Congo Basin to Guinea and the Miombo woodlands in Southern and Eastrern Africa. Isabella Masinde from African Wildlife Foundation believes Africa needs to look at the whole picture in order to come up with better strategies.

MASINDE: We have heard from science that about 20 percent of the emissions have come from deforestation. So if we can retain what we have and also look at things in a landscape manner, you know adopting the landscape approach, so that we are not just looking at forests alone but all the other activities that go on in an ecosystem, we are going to have better strategies developed for Africa that will support adaptation.

NARR: Jocelyne Sambira, UN Radio.

(duration: 2'43")