STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
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Reducing the destruction of the world’s rainforests is crucial if
we are to limit global warming. About 11% of global emissions
of greenhouse gases stem from deforestation. At the same time,
rainforests can be severely affected by climate change. Habitat
fragmentation and degradation increase the forests’ vulnerability.
It is uncertain exactly how rainforests will be affected by
climate change, but we know that deforestation must be reduced
in order to cut emissions and reinforce the resilience of the
remaining forests.
Carbon bank and carbon sink
According to the FAO, the world’s forests store around 650 billion
tons of carbon; more carbon than what is found in the atmosphere.
When forests are burnt or destroyed, the carbon is released as
CO
2
. When forests grow, either through expansion of forest area or
because old forests become denser and more carbon-rich, they bind
CO
2
and convert it to carbon in the form of wood and other biomass.
According to a study of the three large rainforest regions in the world
– the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia – the world’s
rainforests contain 42% of all carbon stored in forests, even if they
only account for 33% of the forested areas.
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The carbon content of
rainforests is thus significantly higher than for other forest types.
The Amazon forest contains 176 billion tons of carbon (27% of all
carbon in forests), more than the rainforests of the Congo Basin
and Southeast Asia put together. Still, the peat forests of Indonesia
top the list of most carbon per hectare of forest.
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Peat forests are
increasingly being converted into plantations, and the magnitude
of emissions resulting from this has global impact.
A source of emissions
Brazil and Indonesia, two of the world’s most important rainforest
countries, have for decades had so massive emissions from
deforestation that they rank among the world’s largest emitters of
greenhouse gases. Brazil has since 2005 succeeded in drastically
reducing its rate of deforestation, thereby delivering the last decade’s
single-most significant contribution to reduced emissions globally.
In Indonesia, on the other hand, it appears that deforestation –
and consequently the emission of greenhouse gases – has been
increasing in recent years. For some rainforest countries, emissions
from deforestation mean that their climate gas emissions per capita
are on par with many industrialized countries. According to the World
Resources Institute, Papua New Guinea, Brazil and Indonesia all have
higher emissions per capita than Norway and France in 2011.
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Emissions due to deforestation are somewhere in excess of 3 billion
tons of CO
2
. The newest estimates, including those used by the UN’s
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate that
deforestation currently accounts for 11% of global anthropogenic
emissions of greenhouse gases.
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However, data on emissions from
deforestation are estimates – not exact science. Figures for the annual
amount of forest that is destroyed are uncertain, and even less is known
about how much forest is being degraded and the resulting emissions.
The rainforest and climate change
