Dossier
Climate and forests
There are more than 3 trillion trees on earth, that means there are about 422 trees per person. However, the total number of trees has almost been halved since the start of human civilization. Ecosystems with a long lifespan, like forests, are more vulnerable to the relatively quick changes of climate change.
Forests have numerous important functions (so-called ecosystem services): via photosynthesis they produce oxygen and biomass, retain fresh water, serve as home for lots of animal species and humans, influence weather patterns and fix carbon dioxide. By managing forests in a sustainable way these functions can be fulfilled by forests in the future as well and can help to prevent and deal with climate change.
European forests are growing old, which means they will convert less carbon from the atmosphere into biomass. Nevertheless, European forests still sequester about 362 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
Read also
- 'How farmers can store CO2', Wageningen World 2019-1
- Nature-based climate mitigation
News about climate and forests
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How do trees survive dry and hot summers? Leaf lifespan and growth recovery are key
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AI reveals landscape patterns after deforestation in Africa
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Drought imperils carbon sequestration in European forests
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High uncertainty in climate impact of global forests; a call for more complete estimation
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Sessile oak testing in upcoming Dutch winters and summers
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Europe's forests increasingly under pressure from climate-driven disturbances
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Forest protection key for reliable rainfall
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Will tropical mountain tree species adjust to warming temperatures?
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Agriculture drives more than 90% of tropical deforestation
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Is the rainforest a sink or a source of CO2?
Projects about climate and forests
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B4EST
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Mobilizing and monitoring climate positive efforts in forests, forest sector, bioenergy sector and newly evolving bioeconomy sectors
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Infectious diseases, compositions of host assemblages and species traits
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Towards an Understanding of Tipping Points Within Tropical South American Biomes
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Evaluating the impacts of investments in agroforestry operations Africa
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Biodiversity and disease risk
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Consequences of traditional agricultural intensification for secondary forest resilience and ecosystem services in the Central Amazonia
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The Governance Capacity of Forest Land Allocation Policy in Vietnam
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Beyond leaf economics: Integrating root, leaf and stem traits to examine resource acquisition and tree growth
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REDD+: Rewarding carbon storage in tropical forests
REDD+
REDD+ is a proposed mechanism to slow down climate change offering developing countries incentives to manage their forests sustainably. It is estimated that deforestation causes 20% of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Most of the forests stand in developing countries, who have less resources to manage the forests sustainably. When a developing country manages a forest sustainably it essentially prevents emissions. If REDD+ is implemented those emissions can be accounted for as emission rights, which can be bought by developed countries to meet their emission targets. REDD+ gives developing countries a financial incentive to protect their forests: the UN estimates that emission rights within REDD+ could account for 30 billion USD.