Today s Side Event: The Drivers of Deforestation Today

Transcription

1 Today s Side Event: The Drivers of Deforestation Today Doug Boucher, Union of Concerned Scientists What are the Drivers of Deforestation in the 21 st Century? Earl Saxon, Union of Concerned Scientists An Assessment of the Indonesian Moratorium: likely impacts on the drivers of deforestation Roman Czebiniak, Greenpeace International Transparency and Hope for Indonesia s Forests Fred Stolle, World Resource Institute Measuring Drivers of Deforestation and Degradation, and Strategies to Mitigate Them Geri Steindlegger, World Wildlife Fund WWF s Work on Transforming Markets Andrea Johnson, Environmental Investigations Agency Drivers at the Intersection of Logging, Timber Trade, and International Investment Questions and Answers, and General Discussion

2 Why examine the drivers of deforestation? They re now part of the UNFCCC negotiations a two-year process begun with the Cancun Agreements in December 2010 Recent scientific literature shows that they have changed fundamentally in the last few decades

3 What are the Drivers of Deforestation in the 21 st Century? Doug Boucher, UCS UCS The Root of the Problem report, released July 2011, is a comprehensive review of the literature on the drivers of deforestation

4 Pieces of the conventional wisdom about what causes deforestation: Deforestation is driven by population growth in tropical forest countries Peasant farmers, through their subsistence agriculture and firewood gathering, are the main causes of deforestation What the recent literature shows: Commercial agriculture and forestry especially soybeans, beef cattle, palm oil and timber are now the major drivers The markets for these products are global, in both developed and developing countries

5 Population and Diet Conventional wisdom: Increasing rural populations are the main cause of pressure on forests The recent literature shows: Urban populations and export markets, not population growth, are the chief sources of the demand that drives deforestation

6 Small-scale farmers Conventional wisdom: : Rural populations are driving deforestation for subsistence farming The recent literature shows: Small-scale farmers are no longer a main driver of deforestation, although much of the policy literature focuses on them

7 Wood for fuel Conventional wisdom: : Poor peoples use of firewood is destroying forest The recent literature shows: Firewood is not a major driver of deforestation, but there is reason for concern about charcoal, especially near cities

8 So, if these aren t the drivers of deforestation, what are?

9 Soybeans Large-scale commercial soy production grew rapidly in the late 1990s, becoming the cause of about one-fourth of Amazon deforestation However, civil-society pressure and business responsibility has successfully reduced the impact of soybeans on deforestation in the Amazon to low levels

10 Beef cattle Growing beef consumption, both domestically and for export, is causing most Amazon deforestation However a 2009 moratorium and alternative production systems can reduce its impact

11 Palm Oil Palm oil is one of the most important drivers of deforestation in Southeast Asia It leads to very significant carbon dioxide emissions, particularly when it is planted on peat lands.

12 Timber and pulp Tropical timber and pulp does not meet much of the world s demand, but it is economically important to deforestation in Southeast Asia The timber industry is closed connected to, and its profits help finance, expanding palm oil and pulp and paper plantations

13 Thanks to: The ClimateWorks Foundation The Bellona Foundation Pipa Elias, Estrellita Fitzhugh, Lael Goodman, Katherine Lininger, Calen May-Tobin, Sarah Roquemore and Earl Saxon Fact sheets on our work are available at this side event, and this and other UCS reports can be downloaded at: and at