Cattle graze on burned and deforested land owned by herders near Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil. Brazil is one of the countries that have signed a commitment to protect forests.
Andre Penner / AP
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Andre Penner / AP
Cattle graze on burned and deforested land owned by herders near Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil. Brazil is one of the countries that have signed a commitment to protect forests.
Andre Penner / AP
The pledge to stop and reverse deforestation around the world became one of the biggest, flashiest announcements at last month’s United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. At the time of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson went on stage to make the case for forests – “wonderful, teeming ecosystems, trillions of sanctuaries of nature” – 110 countries have signed up. Since then, the total has grown to 141.
Supporters Glasgow Leaders Statement on Forests and Land Use including Brazil, Indonesia, Russia and most countries of Africa. Together, they control 90% of the world’s forests. They pledge to prevent and reverse deforestation by 2030.
But when Johnson stepped out of the room, an indigenous activist from Chad named Hindou Ibrahim took to the podium to let out a sound of incredulity.
“A number of governments and companies, including in this chamber, are responsible for deforestation and land theft in many areas,” she said.
Ibrahim says: Flowery speeches are worthless without action. She told them she would wait and see what the government and private companies actually achieve next year, before the next big climate meeting.
Frances Seymour, a rainforest expert at the World Resources Institute, says Ibrahim’s skepticism is justified. Similar promises have been made in the past, most notably the New York Declaration of Forests, endorsed by 40 countries and dozens of private companies in 2014. However, in recent years, Millions of acres of rainforest have been cleared in the Amazon and in Africa. .
Still, Seymour says there’s some reason to hope that this latest set of commitments could produce better results.
New tools for forest protection
For one thing, anti-deforestation activists have dramatically improved their ability to detect deforestation quickly, through satellite monitoring. “We can see where it’s going, almost in real time, at pretty good scale,” she said.
They have a much better understanding of the forces behind deforestation, and how to stop it, she said. In some places, like Brazil, there are clear economic incentives for work, based on agricultural expansion. People appropriated and reclaimed land, claiming to be their own land to resell to graze cattle and grow soybeans.
Brazil really showed the world how to deal with this,” she said. About fifteen years ago, a new administration launched a campaign that included enforcing laws against such land grabs.
“They started burying logs, locking up cows that were grazing on illegal forest land,” says Seymour. The government also recognizes forest areas inhabited by indigenous peoples as protected areas.
It is now possible, she said, to “see the boundaries of indigenous territories from space, because they are very effective forest managers.”
Seymour says deforestation has fallen by about 80 percent while those policies have remained in place. It only increased again when the new government took over and made forest protection a priority.
Brazil has signed this latest anti-deforestation pledge. When asked if she trusts Brazil’s current government to enforce it, Seymour paused for a few seconds.
“We would need to look at a course adjustment to have any confidence that this will make a difference,” she said ultimately.
Finding sustainable ways to end deforestation
Elsewhere, Seymour said, the formula for protecting forests is more complex, such as “where deforestation is being driven by poverty. And that will be the case for much of sub-Saharan Africa.”
There, people are cutting trees for firewood or clearing land for cultivation. Seymour says it would be morally wrong to ban this; they need help finding more sustainable ways to make a living and support themselves.
This latest commit has some money behind it. Dozens of countries, including the United States, promised $12 billion over the next 4 years to support indigenous communities, deforestation-free agriculture, and land restoration. Private companies have committed to invest an additional $7 billion.
Now, she and her activists are in constant discussion about how to ensure that those commitments lead to meaningful action, Seymour says.
