Planting trees is not enough to save forests
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
The International Day of Forests, celebrated on 21 March, is an opportunity to reflect on what is truly needed to safeguard woodland areas.
Planting trees is not enough to save forests
The International Day of Forests, celebrated on 21 March, is an opportunity to reflect on what is truly needed to safeguard woodland areas.
21 March marks the International Day of Forests. Launching initiatives aimed at preserving existing forests and restoring woodlands that have been damaged is becoming increasingly important: for the environment, for the fight against climate change, for protecting biodiversity and human health. The risk, however, is that the safeguarding of such a fundamental common good may not be treated in an adequate manner.
The risk of a "hasty" approach became apparent at the first edition of the Global forest summit (Gfs), a conference held on Friday 12 March in Paris. The event was organised on the initiative of the think tank Open diplomacy and a company specialising in planting trees, Reforest'action. It also received the patronage of French president Emmanuel Macron.
The Global forest summit in Paris
"Out of a total of 2,800 registered participants, we recorded a quarter coming from academia, another quarter from non-governmental organisations, a third from the private sector and 15 per cent from public institutions", explained Thomas Friang, president of Open diplomacy. "The idea," he added, "is to place the issue of forests at the top of the international agenda, ahead of the global summits to be held in 2021 on both climate and biodiversity".
The role of woodlands will indeed be crucial in the battle against climate change. On Earth, there are four billion hectares of forests, equivalent to approximately one third of the land surface. But according to the latest report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Fao), in the period 2015–2020 alone, as many as 10 million hectares were deforested — primarily to make way for large agricultural fields or intensive livestock farming. "From the 1990s to the present day, it is estimated that forests covering a total area of approximately 420 million hectares have been felled."
The idea behind the Gfs promoters is to invite businesses and institutions to launch new initiatives on the subject. Much like the One planet summit, also championed by France from 2017 onwards. "Estimates indicate an overall loss due to ecosystem degradation — itself partly a consequence of deforestation — amounting to 6,300 billion dollars per year", explained Robert Nasi, director general of the Centre for International Forestry Research (Cifor), speaking at the Paris summit, adding that "this is a figure greater than the combined annual gross domestic product of three nations such as Canada, Italy and France".
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Robert Nasi (Cifor): "350 billion dollars are needed"
The expert went on to stress that in order to meet the objectives of the Bonn challenge, the global initiative dedicated to the reforestation of deforested or degraded areas, "it is estimated that 350 billion dollars are needed. But so far only 50 have been made available." It is also with this in mind that events such as the Global forest summit are organised. Its approach, however, does not convince all non-governmental organisations.
According to reports in the French press, Sylvain Angerand, of the association Canopée, affiliated with Friends of the earth, said that "the event was presented as a global summit under the patronage of the Élysée, when in fact it is a communications operation funded by a private company that sells trees".
NGOs: "Economic models need to change"
Together with Cécile Leuba of Greenpeace, Angerand went on to explain the substance of the criticism levelled by the associations. The Global forest summit was attended by British researcher Thomas Crowther, author of a study — published in 2019 — according to which planting 1,200 billion trees would make it possible to offset ten years of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. According to the two activists, however, this is on the one hand "an overly simplistic message". On the other, it could become an alibi for companies: "Planting a tree has now become a kind of green pass for businesses. Because those that do it often think they do not need to rethink their economic models, even if those models are based on fossil fuels."
According to Greenpeace, on the contrary, in order to mitigate the problem of climate change it is necessary to "follow the conclusions of the Ipcc experts", the United Nations group of climate experts. That is, "simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the capacity to absorb CO2, in particular through forest ecosystems. Limiting oneself to offsetting creates a diversion, because it allows the illusion to persist that a solution requiring only a relatively limited effort can suffice." Whereas saving the Planet, including through forests, requires immediate and drastic measures.