State of the Rainforest 2014

The rainforest and climate change

increasingly being converted into plantations, and the magnitude of emissions resulting from this has global impact. A source of emissions Brazil and Indonesia, two of the world’s most important rainforest countries, have for decades had so massive emissions from deforestation that they rank among the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Brazil has since 2005 succeeded in drastically reducing its rate of deforestation, thereby delivering the last decade’s single-most significant contribution to reduced emissions globally. In Indonesia, on the other hand, it appears that deforestation – and consequently the emission of greenhouse gases – has been increasing in recent years. For some rainforest countries, emissions from deforestation mean that their climate gas emissions per capita are on par with many industrialized countries. According to the World Resources Institute, Papua New Guinea, Brazil and Indonesia all have higher emissions per capita than Norway and France in 2011. 48 Emissions due to deforestation are somewhere in excess of 3 billion tons of CO 2 . The newest estimates, including those used by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate that deforestation currently accounts for 11% of global anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. 49 However, data on emissions from deforestation are estimates – not exact science. Figures for the annual amount of forest that is destroyed are uncertain, and even less is known about how much forest is being degraded and the resulting emissions.

Reducing the destruction of the world’s rainforests is crucial if we are to limit global warming. About 11% of global emissions of greenhouse gases stem from deforestation. At the same time, rainforests can be severely affected by climate change. Habitat fragmentation and degradation increase the forests’ vulnerability. It is uncertain exactly how rainforests will be affected by climate change, but we know that deforestation must be reduced in order to cut emissions and reinforce the resilience of the remaining forests. Carbon bank and carbon sink According to the FAO, the world’s forests store around 650 billion tons of carbon; more carbon than what is found in the atmosphere. When forests are burnt or destroyed, the carbon is released as CO 2 . When forests grow, either through expansion of forest area or because old forests become denser and more carbon-rich, they bind CO 2 and convert it to carbon in the form of wood and other biomass. According to a study of the three large rainforest regions in the world – the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia – the world’s rainforests contain 42% of all carbon stored in forests, even if they only account for 33% of the forested areas. 46 The carbon content of rainforests is thus significantly higher than for other forest types. The Amazon forest contains 176 billion tons of carbon (27% of all carbon in forests), more than the rainforests of the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia put together. Still, the peat forests of Indonesia top the list of most carbon per hectare of forest. 47 Peat forests are

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014