New plan to restore 150 million hectares of forest
Global Partnership
on Forest Landscape Restoration, World Resources Institute, South Dakota
State University, International Union for Conservation of Nature.
September, 2011.
Larger version of the map
Conservationists and
politicians meeting in Bonn on Friday launched a new initiative to
restore 150 million hectares (580,000 square miles) of deforested and
degraded forests, reports the World Resources Institute (WRI), an NGO
that is involved in the effort.
Supporters say the target — dubbed the Bonn Challenge — could could
boost economic growth while helping fight climate change.
"Restoring 150 million hectares of degraded lands represents an exciting
and largely untapped opportunity to create more jobs and economic
growth, while also protecting our climate," said Göran Persson, a former
Prime Minister of Sweden who will lead the New Global Restoration
Council.
"Forest restoration is a big idea that carries many benefits. It will
improve food security, enhance biodiversity, protect our climate, and
generate jobs,” added Manish Bapna, interim President for WRI, in a
statement. "With this new 150 million hectare target... we have a great
opportunity to take action that will enhance the resilience of people
and nature."
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The Bonn Challenge reforestation target in comparison to recent
deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia. Data sources include INPE
for Brazil and Forest Watch Indonesia for Indonesia.
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WRI says the Bonn Challenge would help meet 2020 targets under the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the U.N. REDD+ program,
which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation.
The target represents just over 7 percent of the 2 billion hectares of
land worldwide that are suitable for restoration, according to a recent
estimate by a team of experts. The area, which is larger than South
America, includes 1.5 billion hectares suited for "mosaic restoration",
which would include forests, farms, and settlements, and 500 million
hectares suited for restoration of closed forests. Another 200 million
hectares of boreal forest degraded by fire are unpopulated but would be
difficult to restore, according to WRI.
Some 30 percent of global forest cover has been cleared in recent
centuries, while another 20 percent has been degraded. Roughly one
billion hectares of former forest lands are presently occupied by
croplands and densely populated rural areas.
The new initiative won't seek to take current agriculture lands out of
production, but WRI says some of these lands "would benefit from having
trees planted in strategic places to protect and enhance agricultural
productivity and other ecosystem functions."
The initiative's supporters hope it will be adopted as an official
target by the U.N., governments, and other institutions.
Originally published:
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0902-forest_restoration_challenge.html
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