?? The forest as a Climate Protector

Less CO? through more healthy Trees and Forests

With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report unveiled earlier this week, it's clear that time is increasingly tight. Climate change is progressing faster than expected and radical changes are needed if we are still to meet the 1.5 degree Celsius target. At the same time, the IPCC report also shows that we can meet the challenges of climate change if we act decisively and comprehensively now.

Our allies in this are the Earth's ecosystems, absorbing huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and thus slowing global warming down. But because ecosystems are threatened by the climate crisis itself, we risk losing them. So the main thing is to increasingly protect ecosystems and strengthen them as natural CO? reducers. Of particular importance here are forests and trees. They contribute significantly to oxygen production and CO? storage, mitigate temperature extremes and regulate the water balance - and are therefore a crucial factor in stabilizing the climate. This is one of the reasons why the international "Forest and Trees Day" has been held on March 21 since the 1970s - the message: protect forests and use them sustainably instead of destroying them!

In this issue, you can read about some of the positive developments that are advancing tree and forest protection and thus also climate protection.

EU Member States Must better Protect their Forests

Last week, the European Parliament voted in favor of stricter CO?e reduction targets. At the same time, this will promote greater protection of natural ecosystems (e.g. forests and moors), as they are enormously important for binding CO?e. According to the decision, at least 310 million metric tons of CO? equivalent are to be sequestered in the EU by 2030 - and that includes soils and forests, i.e. natural CO2 reservoirs! There are also specific targets per state. Germany, for example, would have to bear around 10% of the total reduction.

The aim of the regulation is to oblige the member states to manage their forests sustainably and thus contribute to climate protection in the long term. Read more here.

Canada Pays Indigenous People for Climate Protection

Forest protection has become a global issue in the fight against climate change and for environmental protection. For a long time, Indigenous people in the Cree First Nation have also fought to protect the Broadback forest in Quebec - one of many coniferous forests in Canada. With a total area of around 566 million hectares, these coniferous forests are among the largest CO? reservoirs in the world. The Canadian government is now relying on the knowledge, experience and determination of indigenous peoples to protect forests. They are increasingly being given control of forest areas in order to implement their protection not only in theory but also in practice. In addition, $340 million was pledged last year to support indigenous regions and networks in Canada.

New York is greener than long Thought

Urban vegetation offsets about 40% of urban CO? emissions in New York. That's what a study by Columbia University in New York has now found. The researchers used high-resolution aerial photographs to take stock of urban greenery, including street trees, fallow land and backyard gardens. The result is surprising: there is more green in the city than assumed. 22% of the city's area is occupied by tree canopy and 12% by grasses. These areas offset the total CO? emissions from New York's road traffic. Previously, vegetation was assumed to account for 10% of the total land area in New York. This study once again underscores the importance of trees and other green spaces to urban air quality. The results from New York sound great, but they can be even better: 75% of Hamburg's urban area is green. This was the result of an analysis of satellite images. Here you can read more on this topic.

?? Number of the Week

30,000 hectares of new forest are to be planted in the UK by 2025, and much of it in Scotland. Today the Scottish Highlands are known as great grasslands, but this is just a product of centuries of nature destruction and clearing. The Wildland company has spearheaded a national reforestation effort here. Wildland has bought up large tracts of the Highlands and reforested them. They want to bring back the forest and increase biodiversity in the region. In doing so, they plant native species and rely on mixed forests to make the forest more resistant to pests and fungal attack. The company is pursuing a sustainable reforestation strategy as part of the UK's Carbon Zero climate strategy.

Restoring the forest will require patience, money and the removal of previous monocultures. Read more here.

?? Challenge of the Week

Switch to Ecosia

Every search with a search engine on the Internet causes CO2e emissions. The search engines run on huge servers all over the world, which consume energy and produce CO2e emissions during their provision. An interesting approach to this is Ecosia. The search engine uses renewable energy and 100% of its profits are used to plant trees. For the change from Google, Bing and co. to Ecosia we try to motivate you with our challenge of the week.

Switch to Ecosia

Ecosia works in over 90% of the cases as well as Google, but from the proceeds, for about 45 searches a tree is planted. On the Ecosia page you can see where the trees donated so far were planted and which projects were and are supported.

?? Partner of the Week

Waldsamkeit

The team at Waldsamkeit is dedicated to sharing old and new knowledge about our local nature. In doing so, they want to encourage people to get out and experience nature, explore it and use it in a sustainable way. The team consists of young people from different fields of natural sciences. They place special emphasis on pairing in-depth knowledge with hands-on experience. In their wild herb courses, for example, you not only get to know and safely identify wild plants, but they also show you what healing effects and uses they offer. In addition, Waldsamkeit has well-founded mushroom tours, exciting bird excursions from the canoe, wild herb cooking courses and much more in the program.