Each year on the 21st March the United Nations (UN) celebrates the International Day of Forests
during which all nations are encouraged to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of
forests worldwide. Since 2012 the day has been utilised with the purpose of fostering local,
national, and, international action to support forestry-based conservation and regenerative efforts,
keeping the health of our forests in the mind of people across the world.
To us, forests offer a wide range of benefits through biodiversity and natural capital, these factors work to manage climate change and provide us with a healthy planet and clean air. However, as we all will know the world is constantly putting forests under an intense level of strain, the latest statistics have shown that through deforestation by humans for goods such as meat, palm oil and soybeans the world loses 10 million hectares of forest per year; every minute that passes 2400 trees are cut down to cope with the demand that people place on forests! The implied risks of this are abundant but to list a few:
Continued loss of plant, tree, and animal species due to habitat destruction.
Increased greenhouse gas production, which already consists of 20% of our current global emissions.
Negative impact on underprivileged communities across the world who rely on forests as a primary source of livelihood.
Through that unchecked and unrestricted demand alongside factors such as illegal logging and
uncertified deforestation we stand to maintain only 10% of our forests by 2030, an incredibly
alarming statistic for something that we rely so heavily upon for the health and well-being, of the
planet and its inhabitants. Nationally the United Kingdom has not been protecting its forests, in the
last 20 years, we lost 105,000 hectares of forests and tree coverage; recognising the problem there
has been a commitment to the protection of 30% of natural capital in the country by 2030 supported
by the new Environment Act 2021. Action is being undertaken, but the outcomes are not guaranteed
unless we support in any way that we can to protect our forests. The below list provides some
guidance in the way that you can support:
Go paperless.
Eat less beef.
Remove palm oil products from your shopping.
This list is not exhaustive and with the assumption that you are reading this blog because you have
interest in the subject then you are likely to be doing some of these things anyway. However! If you
are consciously acting then you are in a position of awareness and experience that can be imparted
to the people around you in both a social and professional setting, communicating the risk of buying
products that have a direct correlation to global deforestation can be the best way of mitigating our
impact.
ZERO has plenty of resources available for you to learn more and share with your immediate
contact us via https://www.zerocarbonguildford.org/contact-us
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