Carbon Sequestration and REDD
It must be apparent by now that preserving forest is a quick way to fight climate change and protect human health. Using trees to store carbon is a form of “carbon sequestration,” any process that takes excess carbon dioxide out of the air and locks it in long-term storage.
Ultimately, saving forest is not a permanent solution because even protected forest will eventually reach a saturation point beyond which it can absorb no more carbon.
But keeping the carbon already in tropical forests from being dumped into the air and preserving trees’ carbon absorption ability would be a fast first step to reducing carbon emissions while the world tries to get longer-term policies in place and decrease its reliance on fossil fuels.
If nothing is done, the forest will continue falling at a brisk pace. Scientists estimate that by 2030, 55% of the Brazilian Amazon will be cleared, logged, or damaged by drought or fire. That would not only put 15-25 billion tons of carbon into the air, but it would also remove the forest’s cooling, moistening, and carbon-absorbing services.
Here you see two possible futures for the Amazon, one optimistic, and one pessimistic.
Under the pessimistic scenario, which assumes we change nothing and business continues as usual, 40% of the forest would be cut by 2050, releasing 32 billion tons of carbon. Under the optimistic scenario, which assumes we create more protected areas, maintain indigenous lands, strengthen governance, and create policies that help preserve forest, 25% of the forest would be cut, which would release 17 billion tons of CO2. This is still not great, but the more we can do to avoid deforestation, the better.
Deforestation in Mato Grosso, Brazil, as seen by a satellite
In the past few years, Brazil has taken strong steps to curb deforestation. For example, the government has been trying to monitor and control illegal deforestation.
The Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has developed a system called DETER (Detection of Deforestation in Real Time) that uses satellite images to let the government see exactly where and when forests are burned or cut, greatly aiding enforcement.
Between 2005 and 2006, the government arrested more than 500 people who were illegally cutting forest, and as a result of this and other actions, they managed to cut deforestation rates in half in three years.
And the government established 24 million hectares of new protected land on the frontier of agricultural expansion, about 10% of the forest’s total area. According to a 2008 paper by the Brazilian Forest Service, these actions and others have helped Brazil avoid the emission of 200 million tons of carbon since 2004.
This success has not gone unnoticed, which is why the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has targeted Brazil, as well as other countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, for its proposed Reduction in Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program, known as REDD.
In this mechanism, developed countries that are signatories of the Climate Convention (known as the Annex I countries) would help compensate those with rainforests, such as Brazil and Indonesia, to reduce deforestation and promote sustainable forest management practices. Though not cheap to start, officials estimate costs would decrease over time.
The REDD mechanism in Brazil should include compensation or positive incentives for agricultural small landholders, rural producers, indigenous peoples, traditional communities, and all spheres of government for the service they provide to humanity by keeping the forest standing and not destroying it further. This mechanism includes not only the reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation, but also the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and increasing carbon stocks of forests in tropical countries.
Beyond simply cutting carbon emissions, studies show that the mechanism would also help alleviate poverty, protect citizens, and conserve biodiversity. In Brazil, the generated resources could double the income of 200,000 agricultural producers that live in forest areas; reduce respiratory illness, deaths, and damage to farms and forest from fire; and protect the rainfall that is important to farms and hydropower systems. Finally, REDD can help prevent the loss of services as well as many remarkable and irreplaceable species that make the Amazon such a unique treasure.