The Lima climate summit saw several countries agree upon a global reforestation plan to plant hundreds of millions of trees in a total of 20 million hectares around the world. These countries hope to save more than 1 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year and recover denuded land to transform them again to natural forests or as agro-forestry.
The Lima climate summit sees countries from around the world come together in order to discuss issues around climate change and come up with plans to combat global warming. in 2014, eight Latin American nations have given their pledge to fight deforestation and restore a massive land area twice the size of Britain by 2020. Their reforestation initiative is part of an international plan to plant hundreds of millions of trees and save the planet over 1 billion tons of CO2 each year.
The target area of this massive re-plantation project has been deforested and denuded for the past 15 years. These areas are now being used for subsistence farming. Some are already unusable after extended periods of intensive farming.
Lima climate summit pledge for deforested areas of Latin America
If the Lima climate summit agreement pushes through, deforested areas in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica and Chile will once more be populated with all kinds of flora and fauna which are hoped to halt the march of global warming.
The total area that will be reforested once the Lima climate summit project is completed is approximately 20 million hectares. In addition, a separate plan to restore massive denuded land is being cobbled up in Brazil, the biggest Latin American nation in terms of land area.
The Lima climate summit pledge is expected to be announced this year and if it is put into action, it is expected to significantly reduce CO2 emissions as the total area of denuded land in Latin America is around 200 million hectares.
Deforestation in Latin America & around the world significant contributor of CO2
Based on the data of the World Resources Institute, one half of the 4.2 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions of Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2012 were from agriculture and forest denudation.
From 2001 to 2012, this region lost 36 million hectares of forest and grassland to agricultural expansions. The fact that cutting trees from forests just to make way for farms and ranches releases carbon seems to be largely ignored by locals in this region.
Local non-sustainable agriculture to be made more eco-friendly
This latest initiative from the Lima climate summit is not only supported by the eight Latin countries but also by five business firms that have announced their support for the project. Together, they pledged around $365 million and promised to work with local communities and landowners on agro-forestry schemes.
“It is ambitious. But it would be very foolish to go into areas which have existing land tenure problem,” says Walter Vergara, former leader of the Climate Global Expert Group (GET) at the World Bank.
“This is a market-based, bottom-up approach. If it is done right it will be with the backing of local communities,” explains Vergara, who has also helped mastermind the project with WRI. “We think around one-third of the land will be reforested and the rest used for agro-forestry,” he concludes.
