Protecting Africa’s charismatic megafauna often come first to mind when Westerners think about conservation in Africa. But there’s a lot more to conservation efforts across the continent beyond elephants and lions. Conservationists often need to navigate the complexities around balancing the needs of local communities with the needs of wildlife, adapt to rapid changes in […]
FORESTS THE SIZE OF FRANCE HAVE REGROWN IN THE LAST 20 YEARS
New study showing the capacity of forests to regenerate themselves will help guide smarter reforestation projects in the fight against climate change.
Nearly 59 million hectares of forests – an area larger than mainland France– has regrown since 2000, according to new analysis published today by Trillion Trees - a joint venture between WWF, BirdLife International and WCS. This area of forest has the potential to store the equivalent of 5.9 Gt of CO2 – more than the annual emissions of the US.
The study points to the Atlantic Forest in Brazil as one of the success stories for regeneration, where an estimated 4.2 million hectares – an area roughly the size of the Netherlands – has regrown since 2000, through a combination of planned projects to restore the forest, more responsible industry practices and other factors including migration trend towards cities.
Businesses Have the Path to Zero Deforestation; Let s Use It – BRINK – News and Insights on Global Risk brinknews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from brinknews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ghana included in 2020 Deforestation Fronts Report LISTEN 1
One of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organizations, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has added Ghana in its 2020 deforestation fronts report published in January this year. Other new entrance from West Africa includes Liberia and Ivory Coast.
The report, titled Deforestation Fronts: Drivers and Responses in a Changing World, looks at the state of forests and causes of deforestation in 24 “active deforestation fronts” (MAP), which account for over half of all tropical and subtropical deforestation that occurred over the 14-year period. WWF identified these deforestation fronts based on the likelihood that these areas would experience high rates of forest loss between 2010 and 2030.
For this report, it was extremely important to connect the causes of deforestation and the responses that have taken place in order to understand the dynamics of the problem on the fronts.
The main culprits for this phenomenon are the expansion of commercial agriculture (both small and large scale), tree planting and land speculation . Infrastructure and extractive activities such as mining also play an important role as drivers of deforestation and, over time, they become more important.
To combat the problem on these fronts, there have been responses from both state and private actors and institutions over the last few years. The report draws attention to the importance of Acknowledging the potential and limits across approaches and responses is critical, as well as the synergies that are needed for responses to be more effective to tackle deforestation and forest degradation while avoiding negative social impacts, and achieving more inclusive and equitable outcomes .