Reforestation Taking Root in Projects Around the World

Deforestation is responsible for about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Driven in part by consumer appetite for cheap beef, leather, timber, biofuels, tropical oils and products, as well as paper products, deforestation is proceeding at the rate of an estimated 13 million hectares a year. That translates into 50,000 square miles, an area more than half the size of the United Kingdom, being lost every year.

While there is growing international support for tackling global deforestation -- there's even generous support in the Waxman-Markey bill for the effort -- action has been stymied by the overall lack of progress on a global climate agreement. The circumstance is exemplified by the UN's program on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD). It has only one donor, Norway, and six projects off the ground.

While addressing deforestation has remained difficult, around the world there has been encouraging progress on the opposite process - reforestation and afforestation. Governments, companies, organizations and individuals are putting trees back on some of the lands devastated by deforestation. 

Earlier this month, Pakistan broke a Guinness World Record previously held by India for the most trees planted in a single day – 541,176. There are even reforestation vacations for enterprising travelers that want to get in on the act. But popular events are just the tip of the iceberg of a far more difficult process that is proceeding largely unseen in many pockets around the world.

The Example of India

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently put a spotlight on India’s reforestation efforts as part of her global climate diplomacy. Speaking on CNN, she gave India credit for the $3 billion it has budgeted for reforestation. Indian Minister of Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, earlier this month tooted his own horn in the Times of India.

Brazil has been leading the discussions on how to give incentives to reduce deforestation, that is, to prevent existing forests from being cut down. India has been leading the discussions on giving incentives to accelerate afforestation and reforestation. In fact we have submitted a project proposal to the UNFCCC on sustainable forest management.

Yet India faces a number of challenges in both its forest protection and reforestation efforts, not the least of which is balancing its Forest Conservation Act with the Forest Rights Act, which gives forest-dwelling tribes the right to exploit forest resources and access to forest land.

Despite these its efforts, India is still losing forested land, though deforestation rates have slowed significantly, according to Ramesh.

“Between 1950 and 1980, before the Forest Conservation Act, India was losing 140,000 hectares to non-forest use. After the Act, between 1980 and 2008, the loss has been 25,000 hectares.”

U.S. Reforestation Efforts