The report by the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) suggested that the current UN-led efforts to protect forests had too narrow a focus on promoting trees as stores of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.
“Deforestation accounts for perhaps 10 percent of all emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities. Trees soak up carbon as they grow but release it when they burn or decay.
A series of projects to protect forests had had limited success in recent decades. UN figures show that 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of forest were lost every year from 2000-09, an area equivalent to the size of Greece.
The report said that the current UN-led initiatives fail to look beyond promoting trees. It recommends that international efforts to tackle climate change should also focus on the underlying causes of deforestation and formulate policies that embrace complexity. It argues that the proposed reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) mechanism may too flounder if it fails to incorporate lessons from previous forest conservation and sustainable development initiatives.
Climate change has become a global concern for survival of mankind. It is time for UN to give more focus on how to reduce the impact of global warming and at the same increase forest coverage in the earth.