Halting the major threat to forests

Around a million people slip below the poverty line with every 1% rise on global food prices and escalating food prices put even more pressure on our remaining rainforests.

According to a new study by the World Resources Institute, South Dakota University, much of the land already cleared of forest could be utilised to increase food production rather than chopping down more valuable trees and destroying the associated biodiversity. That half of the world's forest already destroyed or damaged could well provide the solution.

Palm oil plantations in Indionesia have been re-directed to already cleared and burnt land and away from virgin forest areas. Brazilian farmers are also wondering how to expand beef, soya and sugar cane production without new impacts on the Amazon rainforest.

The study found that over 1 billion hectares of degraded forest land, an area larger than the entire USA, could be put to more productive uses such as food and tree crops. To make this happen, suggests the report, will require a programme of national and international government planning, policy instruments (e.g. incentives), regulations and sensitivity to the rights and desires if indigenous communities.

The remainder of the 1 billion hecatres could be put back to forest. This would fulfil a range of eco-system services, such as carbon sequestration, nutrient recycling, land erosion and water management.

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