Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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- Recently, the State of the World’s Forests 2022 (SOFO 2022) was released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
- In January 2022 the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released the India State of Forest Report-2021.
- At the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, 140 countries pledged to eliminate forest loss by 2030 and to support restoration and sustainable production and consumption.
State of the World’s Forests
The report is published bi-annually and is widely regarded as one of the most important stock takes on forest ecosystems.
The 2022 edition of SOFO explores the potential of three forest pathways for achieving green recovery and tackling multidimensional planetary crises, including climate change and biodiversity loss.
- Halting deforestation and maintaining forests
- Restoring degraded lands and expanding agroforestry
- Sustainably using forests and building green value chains
Key Highlights of the Report
- The 420 million hectares (mha) of forests have been lost between 1990 and 2020, due to deforestation though forests cover 4.06 billion ha of the earth’s geographical area.
- Although the rate of deforestation was declining, 10 mha of forests were lost every year between 2015 and 2020.
- An estimated 289 mha of forests would be deforested between 2016 and 2050 in the tropics alone, resulting in the emission of 169 GtCO2e if additional action is not taken.
- The greenhouse gas total is expressed in terms of billions of tonnes of global annual CO2 equivalent emissions (GtCO2e/year).
- It is estimated that more than half of world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (USD 84.4 trillion in 2020) depends moderately (USD 31 trillion per year) or highly (USD 13 trillion per year) on ecosystem services, including those provided by forests.
- Ecosystem services make human life possible by, for example, providing nutritious food and clean water, regulating disease and climate, supporting the pollination of crops and soil formation, and providing recreational, cultural and spiritual benefits
Suggestions
- Forest protection, such as stopping illegal wildlife trade and avoiding land-use change, can help prevent the next pandemic, and the cost is a fraction of the damages that an actual pandemic would cause.
- Agroforestry holds special potential for boosting biodiversity, food security and even crop production.
- Supply chains that incorporate forest products are another way to make sustainable development a reality, particularly as the world’s population is projected to double by 2060 and demand for natural resources will double to 190 billion metric tons.
- A massive uptick in funding will require, specifically, a three-fold increase by 2030.
- Establishing and maintaining forests, for example, may cost USD 203 billion every year by 2050.
- Supporting local producer organizations and protecting land tenure rights are also crucial for allowing small communities and Indigenous groups to continue sustainably managing their forests.
- For this, governments can give smallholders long-term rights to their tree products, which would help de-risk agroforestry, as well as formalize the recognition of customary land rights.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT
