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Carbon Offsetting

Save the apes to save the world

The logic is simple:  to save the apes, we must save their habitat.  Ape habitat comprises two of the planet's three 'green lungs' – the tropical forests of Africa and SE Asia (in fact, if we broaden our concerns to all non-human primates, we'd include the other lung, the forests of South and Central America).  Fear of climate change has brought the ecological services that these forests provide us to the fore.  As a result, there is a growing sense of urgency in efforts to slow deforestation.   But forests are not just a bunch of trees and monkeys and apes are not just important because they are cute and intelligent social mammals.   To read some conservation literature, one might conclude that a species' beauty and potential for giving humans pleasure was the main reason for conserving it.  Let us not forget that primates also perform a service to the planet.  They along with elephants, parrots and other fruit-eating animals are keystone species in their habitat, principally because they disperse the seeds of the next generation of trees in their droppings.  The trees we fell today for our garden furniture and hardwood paneling were 'planted' by animals many centuries ago.   This means that to save tropical forests in the long-term, we need to protect the 'gardeners of the forest' – the apes and elephants and other seed dispersal agents. 

This is not, of course, just about saving charismatic mega-vertebrates. About 50 per cent of all known species live in tropical forests, or more correctly, play a role in the ecology of tropical forests.  And these forests play a pivotal role in sequestering and storing carbon.   Moreover, losing these forests doesn't just mean an absence of their role as climate regulators.   Forest destruction and degradation accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions – much more than the transport sector.   Cutting down forests is a double loss because the process adds to the very problems we need the forests to help solve.  Forests store carbon not just in the wood of the trees, but in the soil – especially in tropical forests growing on peat swamps, which release centuries worth of stored carbon if they dry out.

In December, world leaders will meet in Bali, Indonesia for the 13^th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (see http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_13/items/4049.php ).   Among the items to be discussed are the new regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which will come into effect after the first period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.   Unfortunately, the Kyoto Protocol and European Emissions Trading Scheme do not recognize carbon credits for avoided deforestation, and make it very difficult for afforestation or reforestation schemes in developing countries.   As a result, economic pressures to exploit forests are many times greater than efforts to conserve them, and so illegal and unsustainable logging, and the conversion of tropical forests to agriculture, continue to threaten these biodiverse habitats and their role in maintaining climate stability.   Ironically, one of the measures being touted as a means of reducing carbon emissions – using bio-fuels instead of fossil fuels – is exacerbating the destruction of forests by making it more profitable to convert them to growing oil palms or other crops for bio-fuels.

Action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could, if the right decisions are taken in Bali in December, also help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce poverty and improve people's lives in developing countries. The poorest 1.2 billion of the world's population depend directly on forests for their livelihood.   Imagine the jobs to be created and improved infrastructure to create a system of monitoring and protecting forests rather than destroying them.   The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, published by the British Government (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/stern_review_report.cfm ) concludes that "Curbing deforestation is a highly cost-effective way to reduce emissions".  It estimates that investing a few billions of dollars per year in protecting forests would be the cheapest way of significantly reducing global carbon emissions.   This is not, however, instead of developing low carbon technology and curbing other emissions, but an immediate action that could buy some time for new technologies to come into play.

In short, as well as doing all we can to deuce our personal carbon footprint, we must all call on our Government to create a regulatory framework that stimulates the voluntary carbon markets.   Carbon trading should meet strict standards, such as those developed by the Climate, Community Biodiversity Alliance ( http://www.climate-standards.org/index.html ).   This would attract immediate investment in managing forests for the benefit of local communities, biodiversity conservation and the planet.

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