State of the Rainforest 2014

Why forests are critical for development By Frances Seymor Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, Washington, DC; Director General of CIFOR, the Center for International Forestry Research 2006–2012

Forests are more than a solution to climate change The science is clear about two things. First, climate change poses a significant threat to human well-being, with developing societies and poor households most vulnerable to harm. The effects of extreme weather events, rising sea levels, food insecurity, water scarcity, and displacement will be felt disproportionately by poor communities who tend to lack essential infrastructure, rely more on natural resources for food and income, and with fewer assets, have a harder time coping with shocks. 1 Second, protecting the world’s remaining tropical forests is an essential component of any strategy to stabilize the climate. Deforestation accounts for 11% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, and the mitigation potential of forests is even greater due to the potential to reduce forest loss as well as to increase the carbon sequestered by forest regrowth. 2 Emerging evidence increasingly supports two additional propositions. Forests make essential – and often invisible – contributions to development above and beyond their role in mitigating the emissions that cause climate change. Further, measures to protect forests can be aligned to advance rights, livelihoods, and governance objectives, multiplying the positive impacts of action, including action by and for affected communities.

Forests contribute to rural livelihoods and broader development goals Development planners often assume that commercial exploitation or conversion of forests to other uses are the best ways to boost national economic growth and rural incomes. But forests already make significant contributions to rural livelihoods and broader human well-being in ways not yet captured in national statistics. As a result, the losses of forest goods and services are seldom weighed against the potential benefits of intensive logging, mining, or conversion of forest lands to plantation agriculture. Yet the value of intact forests for the food security, energy security, health, and safety of societies throughout the tropics is becoming increasingly evident. Food security is a top priority on development agendas, but the role that forests play – both directly via livelihood contributions and indirectly through ecosystem services that benefit agriculture – is often overlooked. A study published in 2014 revealed that households in and around tropical forests derive on average 21% of their income from the harvest of wild forest products. A third of this is in the form of forest foods such as wild fruits and bushmeat, which are often important for nutrition. 3

Clearing forests for food crops could actually undermine food security by destroying the ecological infrastructure that supports

Small rainforest in a big world

How much rainforest in the world? Million square kilometres

Land Water 361 Land 149

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Rainforest

Total Earth surface

Source: Based on data from the MODIS Land Cover Group, Boston University

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014