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In
our latest feature, Peter Yeung discovers that putting conservation in the hands of
local communities might be the best way to fight
deforestation.
The idea is that
community-run forests – those owned, managed and
governed by their inhabitants – naturally preserve
biodiversity and have very low, if any, levels of
deforestation, while improving the livelihoods of
the world’s often disadvantaged, rural communities
who rely on forests to make a living. Who better
to act as forest guardians and to manage these
complex ecosystems in harmony with nature, the
argument goes, than those born and raised within
them?
There’s growing empirical evidence to
support that intuition. Research by the
World Resources Institute (WRI), a global
non-profit research organisation, into 14
forest-rich countries containing 323 million
hectares of community forest across Latin America,
Africa, and Asia has found that communities
“maintain or improve their forests’ carbon
storage". The report found that community
forests are a “vital opportunity to combat climate
change” and one that has “long been
undervalued".
With deforestation and other
land degradation now accounting for
11% of annual global greenhouse gas
emissions, the need for a new model is more
pressing than ever. The planet lost an area of
tree cover larger than the United Kingdom in 2020,
including more than 4.2 million hectares of
primary tropical forests, according
to research by the University of
Maryland. Using one familiar measure, that’s eight
football fields of rainforest destroyed every
minute – a 12% increase from 2019, despite the
pandemic.
Fortunately, schemes have taken
root across the world, reducing deforestation,
increasing biomass and making communities more
resilient: from the more than 2,000 ejido forests
of Mexico, to Nepal’s 18,000 community forests, to
the five million hectares of community-run forests
across the islands of Indonesia.
The
benefits have spread far and wide. The WRI report
found that government protection of the forest
rights of communities in Niger has added 200
million new trees, absorbing 33 million tons of
carbon over 30 years. Community forestry in Nepal
has improved forest health and generated a carbon
stock of more than 198 million tons across 1.6
million hectares. And in Bolivia, from 2000 to
2010, only about 0.5% of land on legally
recognised Indigenous community forest was
deforested, compared with 3.2% in the Bolivian
Amazon. | |
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What we're reading: Bridging Africa's digital divide:
The rise of community internet In villages
and townships, Africans are building their own
internet infrastructure to connect, and protect,
the unconnected. THOMSON REUTERS
FOUNDATION
How might the world meet its clean
energy needs With the world attempting to
reach net zero by the middle of this century, what
sources of energy could feasibly replace fossil
fuels? BBC FUTURE
France is freeing fruit and veg from
its plastic prison Under a new law, a large
portion of the country’s produce will no longer be
sold in single-use plastic containers. REASONS TO
BE CHEERFUL
Up and out of the
darkness Several UK organisations sprang
into action to combat COVID-19-related lockdown
loneliness and isolation. The Cares Family
connected tens of thousands of younger and older
neighbours to spend time together, virtually now
due to the pandemic, and Linking Lives also
connected people through a telephone befriending
model that has yielded deep connections. THINK
GLOBAL HEALTH
Why putting solar canopies on
parking lots is a smart green move Solar
farms are proliferating on undeveloped land, often
harming ecosystems. But placing solar canopies on
large parking lots offers a host of advantages —
making use of land that is already cleared,
producing electricity close to those who need it,
and even shading cars. YALE ENVIRONMENT
360
One to ponder:
Can a vastly bigger
national-service programme bring the US back
together? The idea has a
remarkably broad array of supporters, including
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Stanley McChrystal.
THE NEW YORKER
Quote of the
week:
“It is a fault to
wish to be understood before we have made
ourselves clear to ourselves.” – Simone
Weil
Song of the
week:
Wesley Joseph -
Thrilla | |
That's it for today, folks. If you're
enjoying this newsletter, please do forward it on to any friends who
might be into it. All the
best, Ollie Founder &
Editor-in-Chief, Struggles From
Below | | |
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2019 Struggles From Below, All rights
reserved. Our mailing address
is: Struggles From Below, 48b Waller
Road, London, SE14 5LA
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