Conservation 2.0: Curbing Deforestation to Slow Climate Change

Conservation 2.0: Curbing Deforestation to Slow Climate Change

By Bill Stanley
Director, Global Climate Change Initiative, The Nature Conservancy

My Uncle John — who’s in his sixties — is so interested in energy dependence and concerned about climate change that he’s installed a small wind turbine to help power his home, which is nestled among the mixed hardwood and pine forests of northern Georgia.

Unfortunately, an outbreak of pine bark beetles — which many experts would argue was exacerbated by warmer temperatures — has killed many of his pines. Together, the beetles and the turbine exemplify how we’re already living with climate change, and how we’re shifting from debating its existence to doing something about it.

Individual actions such as John’s — along with effective government policies — are crucial to reducing our overall carbon emissions, especially in the United States. But there is another major (and largely underreported) cause of climate change that we must address: deforestation.

Give Countries Incentives to Slow Deforestation

Deforestation accounts for roughly 20 percent of global carbon emissions — and more than 30 percent of emissions from developing countries. Halting deforestation over the next 50 years would protect important habitat while also providing around 15 percent of the carbon-emissions reductions needed to stabilize global temperatures.

And halting deforestation in the next 50 years is possible — if we give countries the appropriate financial incentives to reduce carbon emissions by slowing deforestation. These incentives could also provide developing countries with the resources they need to alleviate poverty, reduce disease and increase access to clean water.

Building Consensus for an International Agreement

The Nature Conservancy is uniquely positioned to address the intersection of carbon emissions and loss of habitat. We are building support among businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the international community for a major global agreement to reduce worldwide carbon emissions — including those from deforestation.

We are already working with others to look at what types of approaches, policies or incentives are most likely to advance national and international efforts to reduce deforestation — for example, through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This work to halt deforestation will not be easy or rapid. But as my Uncle John knows, climate change is here — and we can already do something about it.

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