Keeping Rainforest Standing, Saving Our Future

All creatures living on earth depend on rainforests. While a tree is already an amazing agent that can convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen through a process called photosynthesis, the rainforest is not just collective trees standing together in a certain area. A rainforest is a complete set of ecosystems that through various and complex inter-organisms interaction and biological cycles, provides various ecological functions that sustain the livelihood of humans and other creatures.

The rainforest is a natural technology to help avoid global warming and balance the climate. According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the impacts of 1.5°C of global warming, limiting average temperature rise to 1.5°C requires both drastic reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. While high-tech carbon dioxide removal solutions are under development, the “natural technology” of forests is currently the only proven means of removing and storing atmospheric CO2 at a scale that can meaningfully contribute to achieving carbon balance.

Whether we live in, near or distant from the rainforest, we need the rainforests to stand and play their functions properly. Rainforests may cover only six percent of the earth’s surface but are home to more than half of the world’s plant and animal species. Rainforests help regulate our climate and provide us with everyday products. They also store large amounts of carbon and produce oxygen.

Unfortunately, according to the Rainforest Foundation of Norway (RFN)’s State of the Tropical Rainforest Report, “Of the approximately 14.5 million square kilometres of tropical rainforest that once covered Earth’s surface, only 36 % remains intact. Just over a third, 34 %, is completely gone and the last 30 % is in various forms of degradation. Of the current rainforest cover, almost half (45 %) is in a degraded state.” Anders Krogh, the author of the report and RFN’s special advisor, has analysed and compiled Global Forest Watch data from all the 73 countries that are home to the world’s tropical rainforests, the planet’s oldest and most diverse terrestrial ecosystem.

Deforestation, at an alarming rate, is still happening in different parts of the world. Rainforests are deforested for logging, mining, agriculture expansion, and ranching. Fast human population growth has also induced deforestation to provide massive supplies of food, infrastructures, land for settlements, and other kinds of developments. Development for socio-economic purposes that are done at the expense of the rainforest loss, in turn, will create negative impacts that threaten various aspects of human livelihood, i.e. food and water scarcity, climate change that affects agricultural failures, high prevalence of zoonotic diseases, and various natural disasters. So, without considering rainforests as a long-term asset in the whole development cycle, development could mean a massive genocide of human beings and other creatures.

Rainforests are complex and diverse ecosystems that take a long time to grow and function. According to a study focusing on the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, certain aspects of a rainforest can return surprisingly quickly – within 65 years. But for the landscape to truly regain its native identity takes a lot longer – up to 4000 years. This means that once rainforest is severely damaged and deforested, it will take a very long time, or even several generations, to recover and re-function properly.

What can we do to keep our rainforests standing? The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says that to safeguard the world’s rainforests, governments must take action to curb deforestation, strengthen conservation, and drive ahead with restoration, and companies involved in commodity production should ensure their supply chains are not tainted by deforestation.

According to the Rainforest Foundation UK, Indigenous Peoples make up around 5% of the world’s population. Further, Amnesty International states that “although they comprise only 5% of the world’s population, Indigenous Peoples safeguard 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. More than 20% of the carbon stored above ground in the world’s forests is found in land managed by Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon Basin, Mesoamerica, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia. Their sustainable land use fights climate change and builds resilience to natural disasters.” This means that besides governments’ serious commitment to curb deforestation and corporate sustainability transformation, there should be strong support to the indigenous peoples to continue conserving rainforests using their traditional knowledge and wisdom.?

For this purpose, the Forest Conservation Fund (FCF), a Swiss-based non-profit organization, has been working closely with indigenous communities around the world, particularly in Asia, Africa, and South America regions. Currently, FCF has been working with 12 projects around the world that aim at supporting indigenous or customary communities to conserve their rainforests through improving their capacities, for example with detecting threats and monitoring biodiversity through regular patrols and use of technology, replanting forests with native plant species, and green economic development. FCF also enables companies with or without an agricultural footprint, to be forest-positive, a concept that aims to achieve a positive environmental impact by restoring and conserving forests.

For more information please visit the Forest Conservation Fund website