Sunday, June 5, 2011

How To Prevent Rainforest Destruction


Protect
Over the past decade, the countries of the Congo Basin designated 11% of the land as protected areas. Five countries--Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Gabon, and the Central African Republic--are reviewing their national forest policies "with a view to improving consistency of actions and integration between the forest sector and other sectors with potential impacts on trees and forests." But besides Indonesia, most countries in Southeast Asia have been slow to enforce forest laws on the ground. This is largely because of lack of resources and conflicting priorities. It's easy to turn the other way when illegal logging is bringing in cash.


Plant
Saving the remainders of the world's rainforests isn't enough; we also need to work on reforestation. In Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand, reforestation has begun to flourish as result of government programs and demand for forest products (and private sector-planted areas). In Thailand, forests are growing on former agricultural land because the " agricultural frontier has, to a greater or lesser extent, been closed."
Pay
The reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) program, a UN-backed initiative that monetarily reward projects which protect threatened forest areas, is being used by Indonesia to slow forest destruction. The country already has 40 REDD projects, and companies including Gazprom have committed to buying forest carbon credits.

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