Forests vanishing fast: WWF official

An increasing percentage of greenhouse gas emissions is a result of deforestation and forest degradation, said Fitrian Ardiansyah, climate and energy program director for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

“The current split of greenhouse gas contribution is 80/20, between energy sources and deforestation. However, that percentage may alter if we don’t stop chopping down trees,” Ardiansyah told the Taipei Times in an interview earlier this month.
Deforestation may also be behind the severe La Nina effect this year, as deforestation fuels climate change, he said. In Taiwan, La Nina has been blamed for strong cold fronts and dust storms this year and has been pinned for causing unusual weather elsewhere around the globe.

“While energy sources include power plants, electricity usage and transportation, deforestation means the complete demolition of forests. And forest degradation means that the larger trees are chopped for timber, leaving the forest with only lesser trees,” he said.

The three countries producing the most emissions through deforestation and forest degradation are Indonesia with 35 percent of such emissions, Brazil with 19 percent and Malaysia with 10 percent, said the WWF official, who comes from Indonesia.

“As the possessor of the world’s largest tracts of forests, it is our responsibility to protect them,” he said.

A number of factors are driving deforestation, all of which have to do with population growth and development, Ardiansyah said.

“Firstly, population growth brings demands for more housing and commodities such as timber, paper and agricultural goods. So we flatten forests for residential space or farm plantations and harvest the wood for timber or wood by-products,” he said.

For example, oil palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia are a source of concern, he said. Both countries earn much of their GDP from exports of palm oil, which is used in food, biofuels and cosmetic products.

Statistics from the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry data indicate, however, that “70 percent of Indonesia’s oil palm plantations were originally forests,” Ardiansyah said.

Taipei Times