Forests could start growing again: UN expert

Yahoo News 3 Feb 11;

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The world's forest area could start expanding again in a few years, a top UN expert said Wednesday as the United Nations launched an international year of forests.

But trees are still being cut down at an "alarmingly high" rate, particularly in the Amazon and Africa, according to the latest UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) global study.

And many of the new trees will have only "junk" value in disposing of the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming, said the FAO assistant director general Eduardo Rojas-Briales.

China has launched a massive reforestation program boosting Asia's total and the forest area has grown in Europe and North America over the past decade, said the FAO's "State of the World's Forests" report.

The 4.032 billion hectares (9.9 billion acres) of forests in the world in 2010 is down from an estimated 4.085 billion in 2000, said the FAO. But the speed at which which trees are being cut down is slowing from 8.3 million hectares a year in 1990-2000 to 5.2 million in the past decade.

"There are evident signs that we could arrive at a balance in a few years," said Rojas-Briales, adding that the deforestation rate was 50 million hectares a year 30 years ago.

"Of course we will still lose very valuable forest and we will gain many junk forests with not so much carbon storage value" and so not able to soak up the same amount of greenhouse gases as the forests lost in recent decades.

China is taking its forested area from 120 million hectares to 200 million, said the UN official, who also praised efforts by South Korea and India.

Overall, Asia's forest area has increased from 90.5 million hectares in 2000 to 119.8 million in 2010, said the report.

South America's forest area has fallen from 904 million hectares to 864 million in the past decade. Rojas-Briales said Latin America remains a problem because it has not used its economic growth of recent years to help forests.

"In East Asia they are putting resources and policies into position, in Latin America we don't see this," said the FAO official.

He added however that there were preliminary signs of a "significant" reduction in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon over the past two years.

Africa's forest land has fallen from 20 million hectares in 2000 to 19.5 million at the end of the decade, said the FAO report. Europe's total has risen from 998 million hectares to just over one billion over the past decade.

The launch of the International Year of Forests was carried out by top UN environment officials and Wangaari Maathai, the Kenyan who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her campaigning in defence of trees.

The Conservation International group released a special study for the launch saying that six of the world's 10 most threatened forest zones are in Asia.

The International Year of Forests "should focus the world?s attention on the need to increase the protection of forests and make sure that their high importance for biodiversity conservation, climate stabilization and economic development is not undervalued," said Conservation International.

It said the Indo-Burma river and floodplain wetlands, the New Zealand forests, forests in the 17,000 equatorial islands of Borneo and Sumatra in southeast Asia, the Philippines tropical forest and the forest on Brazil's Atlantic coast are the most threatened.

"These forests have all lost 90 percent or more of their original habitat and each harbor at least 1,500 endemic plant species," said the report. "If these forests are lost, those endemic species are also lost forever."

Forest loss slows as Asian nations plant
Richard Black BBC News 2 Feb 11;

Forest loss across the world has slowed, largely due to a switch from felling to planting in Asia.

China, Vietnam, the Philippines and India have all seen their forested areas increase in size.

There are also gains in Europe and North America, but forests are being lost in Africa and Latin America driven by rising demand for food and firewood.

The findings come in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) State of the World's Forests report.

Environmental groups are warning that priority needs to be given to old forests and the biodiversity they maintain in the face of climate change and growing demand for resources.
Rise of Asia

The FAO report's formal launch at UN headquarters in New York co-incides with the start of the UN's International Year of Forests.

The initiative aims to raise awareness of conservation among governments and other stakeholders.

The FAO is urging governments to explore ways of generating income from forests that do not depend on chopping trees down.

Forests now cover about 40 million sq km - just less than one-third of the Earth's land surface.

Although 52,000 sq km were lost per year between 2000 and 2010, that was a marked improvement on the 83,000 sq km annual figure seen during the previous decade.

Europe traditionally has been the region with the biggest increase; but now, Asia has overtaken it.

A net loss of forest in Asia during the period 1990-2000 has been transformed into a net gain in the decade since.

"China has increased its forest by three million hectares (30,000 sq km) per year - no country has ever done anything like this before, it's an enormous contribution," said Eduardo Rojas-Briales, assistant director-general of the FAO's forestry department.

"But we can also highlight the case of Vietnam, a small and densely populated country that's implemented very smart and comprehensive forest reform - or India, which has not controlled its population as China has and where standards of living are even lower.

"Nevertheless India has achieved a modest growth of its forest area, and the Philippines has turned things around as well - so we're seeing improvement across Asia except in the weakest states," he told BBC News.

Dr Rojas-Briales suggested Latin American countries where forest loss continues could learn from East Asian policies, in particular the adoption of land use planning.

The report cites agriculture as the leading cause of deforestation in South and Central America and the Caribbean.

In Africa, the need for firewood is the key factor.

Conservation call

In Asia, South America and Africa, the area covered by deliberately planted forests is increasing, which could mean that old-growth forests continue to disappear while plantations spread.

The report does not distinguish between the two kinds; but Dr Rojas-Briales said plantations overall were not expanding at the expense of old-growth forests, at least not in Asia.

This is supported by the report's conclusion that in the Asia-Pacific region, the area of forest designated for production has fallen since 2000, with an increase in lands set aside for conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

However, as old-growth forest continues to disappear in some parts of the world, Conservation International is one of several environment groups pressing for increased attention on these areas and their special importance for nature.

"Forests must be seen as more than just a group of trees," said Olivier Langrand, the organisation's head of international policy.

"Forests already play an enormous economic role in the development of many countries as a source of timber, food, shelter and recreation, and have an even greater potential that needs to be realised in terms of water provision, erosion prevention and carbon sequestration."

Conservation International is highlighting 10 places in the world where forests of iconic importance are under threat, including the banks of the Mekong River and the wildlife it supports, the lemur-rich jungles of Madagascarm and the Californian Floristic Province, home of the giant sequoia.

All currently cover less than 10% of their original range.

There are concerns in some quarters that the UN scheme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (Redd) may lead to forests being conserved simply because they store carbon, without taking account of their immediate benefits to wildlife and local people.

Launch of International Year of Forests (IYF) - "Celebrating Forests for People"
Statement by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director
UNEP 2 Feb 11;

2011 is the International Year of Forests (IYF) and celebrations will officially be launched today during the 9th Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests in New York.

This Year, which comes in the wake of the International Year of Biodiversity, represents an opportunity for evolving our work on sustainable forestry to a higher plain.

Forests are an issue with essential links to livelihoods, addressing climate change and other environmental challenges; the UN's Millennium Development Goals and sustainable development as a whole.

This is in part why forests are a key sector within UNEP's Green Economy work - a landmark report which will be launched at the upcoming Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF) - as we work to strengthen all three pillars of sustainable development on the Road to Rio+20 taking place in May next year.

Forests represent many things to many people including spiritual, aesthetic and cultural dimensions that are, in many ways, priceless. But they are also cornerstones of our economies, whose real value has all too often been invisible in national accounts of profit and loss.

This mismatch between reality and perception emerged with full force in The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) work.

It estimates that deforestation and forest degradation are likely costing the global economy between US$2.5 and US$4.5 trillion a year, more than the losses of the recent and ongoing financial crisis.

If one further considers the loss of ecosystem services - from water supplies to soil stabilization and from carbon sequestration to recycling of nutrients for agriculture - then perhaps the imperative to better manage these natural or nature-based assets becomes clearer.

This is given further urgency from the TEEB work which indicates that in some countries close to 90 per cent of the 'GDP of the poor' is linked to nature and forests in particular.

In Kenya, UNEP has been applying TEEB-based analysis to assist the government and donors towards catalysing the restoration and rehabilitation of the Mau forest complex.

These assessments indicate that the Mau may be worth up to US$1.5 billion a year to the Kenyan economy in terms of river flows for hydro, agriculture, tourism sites and drinking water alongside moisture for the tea industry and facilitating carbon sequestration.

Rehabilitating and restoring lost forest ecosystems is now a key pillar of UNEP's work in Haiti as part of the UN's wider strategy to reduce vulnerability, eradicate poverty and deliver a sustainable future for the Haitian people.

UNEP's involvement in forests and forest ecosystems dates back many years and includes some 100 forest projects in the last decade.

But over recent years, this involvement has gained ever broader and deeper traction in part as a result of TEEB, and in part as a contribution to combat climate change.

With the UN Development Programme and the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization, UNEP is assisting at least a dozen countries to participate in the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation under the UN-REDD or REDD+ programme.

Accelerating this work to meet the expectations of countries and supporters involved, such as the Government of Norway, will be a cornerstone of UNEP's work in 2011 in advance and beyond the UN climate convention meeting in South Africa.

2011 is a special year both for forests and our sustainable forestry work including a new strategic direction.

The full details of this direction will be launched over the next few months in the run-up to World Environment Day on 5 June where there will be a central focus on the Green Economy and forests.

This will also form part of UNEP's public awareness and outreach work that in turn can contribute to a successful International Year.

In advance of this, UNEP will be launching a new forest-focused coffee table book in collaboration with such famous photographers as Yann Arthus-Bertrand; a special media pack and a new website on forests at www.unep.org/forests

The Sasakawa prize, which will be awarded during the GC/GMEF this month, will also carry a forest theme and I would encourage those that can to join the celebrations.

I would urge all staff and their families and friends-through their work or through their communities-to get involved starting with appending the International Year of Forests logo onto your e-mail signature and by planting a tree at home, at work or at school under initiatives such as the UNEP Billion Tree Campaign whose patrons are Wangari Maathai and Prince Albert of Monaco.

The logo can be downloaded at www.unep.org/downloads/IYF/iyf-logo.zip and at www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011. Getting involved in the Billion Tree Campaign is just a click away at: www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign

Let us spread the word to the wider world of the importance of these ecosystems to our lives and livelihoods and of course through acting - being part of 'Celebrating Forests for People' - in 2011.

International Year of Forests launched
UN calls on forest sector to take innovative actions
FAO 1 Feb 11;

2 February 2011, New York/Rome - Millions of forest-dependant people play a vital role in managing, conserving, and developing the world's forests in a sustainable manner, but the outside world often underestimates their rights to use and benefit from local forest resources, says FAO's new State of the World's Forests report, launched at the opening ceremony of the United Nations International Year of Forests in New York today.

"What we need during the International Year of Forests is to emphasize the connection between people and forests, and the benefits that can accrue when forests are managed by local people in sustainable and innovative ways," said Eduardo Rojas, FAO's Assistant Director-General for Forestry.

Towards a "greener" economy

An increased interest in social and environmental sustainability presents a unique challenge to the forest industry to innovate and restructure itself to be able to respond to the demands of the 21st century and to change the generally poor perception of wood products by consumers, who often feel guilty about using wood as they think it is ethically unsound to cut down trees.

The FAO report stresses that on the contrary, the forest industry forms an important part of a "greener" economy and wood products have environmental attributes that would appeal to people. Wood and wood products, as natural materials, are made from renewable resources that store carbon and have high potential for recycling.

The forest industry is responding to numerous environmental and social concerns by improving sustainability of resource use, using more waste materials to make products, increasing energy efficiency and reducing emissions. For example, 37 percent of total forest production in 2010 came from recovered paper, wood waste and non-wood fibers, a figure that is likely to grow to up to 45 percent in 2030, with much of that growth from China and India.

Furthermore, most solid wood products, like sawn wood and plywood, are produced with relatively little energy use. This results in a low "carbon footprint" from their production and use, which is further enhanced by the fact that carbon is stored in wood products. Pulp and paper production is more energy intensive but is coming under increased pressure to reduce its energy intensity and carbon emissions by adopting improved technologies and emission trading.

Many governments believe that the forest industry has great potential in promoting a "greener economy" including through the use of bioenergy, wood promotion activities, and new wood based products and biomaterials and many developed countries have increased their support for the development of forest industries over the last few years.

REDD+ needs to address local concerns

The FAO report also stresses that urgent action is needed to protect the values of forests that sustain local livelihoods in the face of climate change.

Recent decisions taken in Cancun in December 2010 on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) should be aligned with broad forest governance reform and enable the participation of indigenous people and local communities. Their rights should be respected in national REDD+ activities and strategies, the report suggested.

According to the report, countries will need to adopt legislation to clarify carbon rights and to ensure equitable distribution of costs and benefits from REDD+ schemes.

Adaptation strategies are underestimated

While REDD+ forest mitigation actions are attracting major attention and funding, the role of forests in climate change adaptation is crucial but often underestimated by governments. The report stresses the importance of forests in contributing to the achievement of national adaptation strategies.

Forestry measures can reduce the impacts of climate change on highly vulnerable ecosystems and sectors of society. For example, stemming the clearance of mangroves (one fifth of which are believed to have been lost globally since 1980), would help protect coastlines from more frequent and intense storms and tsunamis. Planting forests and trees for environmental protection and income could help the poor in arid countries to be less prone to droughts. Examples of adaptation measures in developing countries include mangrove development and conservation in Bangladesh, forest fire prevention in Samoa and reforestation programmes in Haiti

The report points out that the close links between forests, rural livelihoods and environmental stability underline the need for substantial financial support for forest adaptation measures.

Without such attention given to local-level issues, there is a risk of eroding traditional ways of life and threatening some of the most biologically diverse and environmentally important forests in the world," the report stated.