Experts meet in Congo in bid to rescue world forests
by Christian Tsoumou

Reuters    Translate This Article
31 May 2011

BRAZZAVILLE, (Reuters) - Representatives from 35 countries will seek ways to protect the world's largest rainforests during a week-long meeting in Republic of Congo starting on Tuesday.

The outcome of the summit could play a role in the preservation of some 80 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests, seen by experts as key to offsetting rising global emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

Environment ministers and some heads of state will be among the delegates aiming to draft a cooperation agreement to preserve the Amazon in South America, the Congo in Central Africa, and the Borneo-Mekong in Indonesia.

'We need to work together to promote best forest practices in the three basins. This is the main objective of the summit,' Congo's Forest Economy Minister Henri Djombo said at the official opening of the summit on Monday.

'We are called upon to reduce deforestation and better manage our forests, so we need to be more rational about how we use them,' he said.

Logging, population pressure and razing forests to grow cash crops like palm oil remain a major threat to the world's jungles, but developing countries are increasingly taking measures to protect them.

Some hope to attract funding from rich nations keen to offset emissions by protecting trees in faraway places.

Forests suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and the international Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programme seeks to create financial value for the carbon stored there.

Six countries, including the United States, France and Australia pledged $3.5 billion under the REDD programme at a climate change summit in Copenhagen in 2009.

The Congo Basin forests cover 200 million hectares and sink an estimated 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, offsetting nearly 2 percent of global emissions, says the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.

But growing populations, expanding agriculture, road construction, mining and rising Asian demand for hardwood lumber have intensified pressure on the Congo Basin, as it has on the world's other two rainforest basins.

More than a billion people depend on the big three forests for their livelihood, which also house two-thirds of the world's land species, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

(Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Richard Valdmanis)

© Copyright 2011 Reuters

Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. 'Reuters' and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. For additional information on other Reuters media services please visit reuters.com/newsagency.

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world from good news reported by the press; and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based-Total Knowledge based-programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.