Editor’s note: From the “climatic adaptation” to “Blue Carbon”, of the “landscape approach” to “ecosystem services”, environmental jargon is everywhere these days. The Conservation International blog seems to make sense of an occasional explanatory series that we call “What the hell?”
In this delivery and video, we explore “reforestation”, a critical practice to stop climate change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdzy36YML3Q
What is reforestation?
That is easy: he is helping to take the forest back to an area where it was destroyed.
I have the feeling that there is more than that.
Well, yes: the reforestation involves indigenous peoples, wildlife, breathable air, even powdered cocoa and palm oil for favorite breakfast. Fundamentally, he thought, it is a matter of creating the conditions for the Earth to continue supporting human life.
How is that?
Forests are the best and most profitable method to eliminate and the malfunction of the consequent amounts of climate carbon dioxide (CO2).
I have heard of this climate breakdown in the news. But how hot is too hot?
Glot asked: Unfortunately, we are on the way to cross that “too hot” threshold, which countries agreed to 1.5˚C (2.7˚F) above preindustrial levels in the Paris Agreement. Higher than that and things get ugly.
Ah, and we only have approximately a decade to prevent that from happening.
What has this to do with trees?
While it is generally understood that fossil fuels are the main culprit of all that carbon of the planet, there is a serious criminal under the radar. In fact: it contaminates a lot co2 That if it were a country, its emissions would occupy third place after China and the United States.
It is deforestation.
Actually?
Actually. Last year, people eliminated enough tropical jungles to cover Belgium. Unsustible development and agriculture are two major deforestation drivers, especially in developing countries.
And it is possible that he has heard of something called “imported deforestation”, which is when the trees are reduced in a place, often a developing nation, to grow products such as cocoa, palm oil and rubber that are these suctionlars, they say Europe.
Can we go back to the part of global warming? Is the end of deforestation necessary to end global warming?
In a nutshell: we have to stop reducing all the trees if we are going to stop the climate breakdown.
But even if we cut current co2 Emissions of each source of the planet, it is not yet enough to prevent warming scenarios in the worst case.
But you just said …
It turns out that co2 is cumulative. What humans put in the air adds to what is already there, to what has been there since industrialization introduced Chumineras in the 1880s. And because2 It is cumulative, and because they are currently continuous emissions incessantly – atmospheric co2 Recently it reached 415 parts per million, a higher concentration than in any other point in human history.
The last time the concentration was so high, about 3 million years ago, there were trees in Antarctica, without ice caves, ice layers, ice blocks, penguins. And zero humans.
In summary: Cut Current co2 Emissions are a requirement for a habitable land. Eliminate and malfunction co2 It is another.
So our best hope is the trees?
The critical role of nature in helping humans survive the climatic crisis is not hope, it is science. A recent study found that growing more forests and restoring damaged ecosystems could eliminate up to two thirds of CO.2 That humans have a leg in the air since the 1880s.
What are we waiting for? Let’s raise all the trees!
It is not so simple.
Nikola Alexandre, a member of the Forest Restoration in Conservation International, has an important point: “Bringing life to Earth is not always about planting trees,” he says. “Nature has a remarkable ability to recover from disturbances alone, as special is a bit of support.”
This could be so simple, he says, how to support indigenous peoples and local communities to better protect fire and hungry cattle.
So, let nature do its things?
Order or. In Brazil, for example, 70 million hectares of previously forced Borgadeo are returned, 20 million hectares or could naturally regenerate. And as Alexandre explains, the natural growth of trees is one of the restoration methods that eliminates and stores the largest amount of carbon from the long -term atmosphere.
“Promoting natural regeneration is much, much cheaper than planting trees,” he says. “There are certain moments when it is important to plant trees, when it is necessary to have a very specific mixture of species. But planting only occurs in areas that will not naturally regenerate so that restoration investment.” “
So what is ‘restoration’?
Reforestation is an aspect of restoration. The restoration is “lowering” the systems of the living earth, and despite its name, it is not just letting nature do its things. Actually, it involves a complex and intricate science and organize a mosaic of social and economic pieces to create conditions so nature can do its own.
As Alexandre explains, “the field of restoration is, by design, about knitting people and nature together.”
So, if we know what we should do to save the planet, what is the problem?
We lose some keys of success, mainly political will and alignment, and money. Large -scale restoration: what we need to maintain existing forests standing and to help new forests to grow, countries, companies and local communities agree. And, ultimately, it will take a great investment of the private sector.
The best place to start is giving the earth a break.
Alexandre compares the current state of the planet with human health: “Sometimes, when you are sick, you just need to take it easy, and other times, you need medicine. Thanks to us, the planet is sick at this time. Our efforts to cure the wounds that are deeper.”
Nikola Alexandre is a Restoration Scholarship in Conservation International. Trisha Calvare is a senior writer in Conservation International.
Additional reading
