Last month’s UN climate summit in Glasgow saw a pledge to stop and reverse deforestation throughout the globe become one of the most talked about announcements. Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister, was on the podium to argue for forests. 110 countries had already signed up. The total number of countries that have signed up has risen to 141.
Brazil, Indonesia and Russia are among the supporters of the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use. They control 90% of the world’s forests. They have pledged to stop and reverse deforestation by 2030.
Johnson hustled out of that room and Hindou Ibrahim, an indigenous activist from Chad, took the podium to voice skepticism.
She said that “some governments and companies, including those in this room are responsible for land-stealing and deforestation in many areas.”
Ibrahim stated that beautiful speeches are useless without action. She assured them that she would be watching to see what private and government companies do in the coming year before attending the next major climate meeting.
Frances Seymour is an expert on tropical forest at the World Resources Institute and believes that Ibrahim’s skeptical attitude is justified. Similar promises were made in the past. Most notably, the New York Declaration on Forests was endorsed by 40 countries and many private companies in 2014. In recent years, however, millions of acres have been cleared of tropical forests in Africa and the Amazon.
Seymour believes there are reasons to believe that this new set of promises might yield better results.
New tools for protecting forests
Anti-deforestation activists are able to quickly detect deforestation through satellite monitoring. She says, “We can see exactly where it is happening, almost instantly, and to a very fine scale.”
She says they are able to see the causes of deforestation and how to stop them. Some countries, such as Brazil, have clear economic incentives that are based on growing agriculture. To resell the land for cattle grazing or soybean farming, people seize and clear it.
She claims that Brazil was the first country to show the world how to do this. A campaign was launched by a new administration fifteen years ago that included the enforcement of laws against land-grabbing.
Seymour states that “they started impounding logs and impounding cows being grazed illegally forested ground.” Protected areas were also designated by the government for areas of forest where indigenous people reside.
She says it is now possible to see the boundaries of native territories from space because they are very efficient forest stewards.
Seymour claims that deforestation fell by around 80 percent, while policies remained unchanged. The problem only resurfaced after a new administration dropped forest protection from its priority list.
Brazil has signed the latest anti-deforestation promise. Seymour was unsure if she believed Brazil’s current government would enforce the pledge. She paused for several second.
She said, “We would have to see a correction to be able to believe that this will make a difference.”
Sustainable ways to stop deforestation
Seymour states that protecting forests in other areas is harder, as is the case when deforestation and poverty are driving it. This would also be true in large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
People are cutting down trees to make firewood and clear land for their crops. Seymour believes it would be wrong to ban such activities; people need help to find more sustainable ways of earning a living and feeding themselves.
The latest pledge has some money behind it. Twelve countries, including the United States, have pledged $12 billion to support indigenous communities, land restoration, and deforestation-free agriculture over the next four year. Private companies have also pledged $7 billion.
Seymour said that she and her fellow activists are currently having non-stop discussions on how to ensure that these pledges lead to meaningful actions.
