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Area of forest as big as Canada could be restored
27/11/2009
An area of forest as large as Canada could be restored without removing valuable food-growing land, says the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR).
The WWF, the Forestry Commission and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are all members of the GPFLR, which carried out the study into restoration.
Former estimates predicted that 850 million hectares of forest had restoration potential but the new study concluded that it was more like a billion hectares that could be restored. This represents some 6 per cent of the land surface of the earth.
Tim Rollinson of the GPFLR said of the research, "this is a first go at identifying the total scale of this opportunity. The next stage is to work at a country level to identify what we would restore in the real world.”
The IUCN’s deputy director spoke about the different restoration potential in each continent. "There are opportunities in almost every continent. The most potential is in Africa; there are substantial areas in China and India, as well as parts of Brazil," he said.
The news follows recent research from the Forestry Commission that claimed planting 30,000 football pitches of trees each year could help reduce carbon emissions by 10 per cent.
The WWF, the Forestry Commission and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are all members of the GPFLR, which carried out the study into restoration.
Former estimates predicted that 850 million hectares of forest had restoration potential but the new study concluded that it was more like a billion hectares that could be restored. This represents some 6 per cent of the land surface of the earth.
Tim Rollinson of the GPFLR said of the research, "this is a first go at identifying the total scale of this opportunity. The next stage is to work at a country level to identify what we would restore in the real world.”
The IUCN’s deputy director spoke about the different restoration potential in each continent. "There are opportunities in almost every continent. The most potential is in Africa; there are substantial areas in China and India, as well as parts of Brazil," he said.
The news follows recent research from the Forestry Commission that claimed planting 30,000 football pitches of trees each year could help reduce carbon emissions by 10 per cent.
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