WHY FORESTS ARE OUR BIGGEST ALLY IN TACKLING THE CLIMATE CRISIS.

And why we should begin to treat them like one.

According to the IPCC, forests have the potential to remove between 3 and 27 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually.

The difference in the estimates – 24 gigatons – is more than the entire annual CO2 emissions of North America, the European countries and China combined.

Whether forests will remove only 3, or 10, 20 or 27 gigatons of CO2 per year, largely depends on us and how ambitiously we protect & restore our forests.

These are our options:

We can either continue deforestation destroy habitats harm wildlife and squander the enormous mitigation potentialof our forests.

Or we reduce deforestation, improve forests management, invest in reforestationand use the unique ability of our forests to help us tackle the climate crisis.

While deforestation has occurred throughout human history, the practice has increased dramatically in the last 50 years. According to the fao, about 18 million acres of forest are lost every year, and roughly half of the Earth’s tropical forests have already been cleared.

But it is Possible to better protect our forests. To ensure that we can continue to rely on their vital role in regulating ecosystems, protecting biodiversity and absorbing carbon dioxide, we must halt the destruction of our forests and invest in reforestation.

#ItsPossible

Source:
unclimatechange