One Day on Earth – Motion Picture Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.

During the 2011 International Year of Forests, WWF’s Living Forests Report is part of a year?long conversation with partners, policymakers, and business about how to protect, conserve, sustainably use, and govern the world’s forests in the 21st century.

If we did nothing, and carried on depleting our forests at the rate we do today, then by 2100, here’s what we’d be left with:

ZNDD means no net forest loss through deforestation and no net decline in forest quality through degradation.

WWF advocates Zero Net Deforestation and Forest Degradation (ZNDD) by 2020 as a target that reflects the scale and urgency with which threats to the world’s forests and climate need to be tackled. 

 

Achieving ZNDD will stem the depletion of forest-based biodiversity and ecosystem services, and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It addresses many targets of the Millennium Development Goals, Convention on Biological Diversity and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

ZNDD means no net forest loss through deforestation and no net decline in forest quality through degradation.

 

ZNDD: What does it really mean?

To understand what ZNDD would mean in practice, WWF developed theLiving Forests Model with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). The model allows us to explore various global land-use scenarios. It calculates the effect of forces such as population growth and consumer demand, and describes possible consequences on key areas such as food production, climate change, biodiversity, commodity prices and economic development. 

The Living Forests Model helps us understand the implications of certain choices, but also raises questions. As we seek answers, we must remember that models can’t account for the idiosyncrasies of real life, and be alert to any unintended harmful side effects to people and the wider environment. 

• It is possible to achieve ZNDD by 2020, through better governance, a shift to sound forest stewardship and more productive use of arable non-forest land. By failing to make that shift, we squander valuable forests.
• Maintaining ZNDD after 2030, as population and incomes grow, requires forestry and farming practices that produce more with less land and water, and new consumption patterns that meet the needs of the poor while eliminating waste and over-consumption. With such changes, ZNDD can be maintained without creating shortfalls in food, timber, biomaterials or bioenergy.
• Delaying ZNDD until 2030, or taking “half-measures”, would lead to huge and irreversible losses in biodiversity and ecosystem services. To prevent runaway climate change, we need to address emissions from deforestation and forest degradation now; the longer we leave this, the harder it will become.

Of course, there’s a gap between theory and practice, findings and solutions. Our analysis identifies 5 key issues that are crucial to achieving ZNDD and avoiding negative consequences:

• Biodiversity: ZNDD should never be at the expense of biodiversity conservation; for example, agricultural expansion in highly biodiverse grasslands to take pressure off forests. Strategies should immediately prioritize forests with highest biodiversity, so these are not lost during the time it takes to achieve ZNDD.
• Governance: ZNDD is only possible under good governance: forests with secure land tenure, effective laws and policies, and empowered, committed local communities whose rights are respected.
• Market demand: much destructive forest use is encouraged by market demand, but markets can also drive better management. Incentives for high social and environmental standards in forestry and farming, and bans on trade in illegally sourced timber can help achieve this.
• Lifestyle and consumption: crop and livestock production play a major role in forest loss. Strategies are needed to reduce food waste, meat and dairy intake, energy use and over- consumption among richer people, and to ensure poor people have the food, energy and materials they need to lead healthy, productive lives.
• Local livelihoods: global plans must recognize local needs. ZNDD needs to be adapted nationally, regionally and locally to ensure that conservation doesn’t harm people’s welfare.

Conserving our forests is possible – and urgent.

But it won’t be easy.

We face some uncomfortable choices and trade-offs, and WWF doesn’t have all the answers. 

But the questions raised in the Living Forests Report can’t be put off for another generation.The time to act is now.

Wooded grasslands of the Cerrado suffering ongoing deforestation as soy agriculture expands to feed growing demand for meat

http://gu.com/p/2zbp2

The rising global appetite for meat is contributing to the destruction of enormous wooded grasslands in southern America, WWF warned on Monday.

While satellite data and stronger law enforcement have led to a decline in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado, a savannah that covers more than one-fifth of Brazil, has experienced ongoingdeforestation due to the expansion of soy agriculture, led by demand for soybean to produce feed for factory-farmed animals.

Human activity through agriculture and cattle rearing has devastated 50% of the Cerrado, with only 20% of it still intact.

During her visit to the region last week, UK environmental secretary, Caroline Spelman, said: “The Cerrado is a huge area – as big as France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK put together. It’s globally important in terms of biodiversity and storing the world’s carbon dioxide, but it doesn’t receive the same attention from the international community. Because of that, people are not aware of the uncertain future it faces.”

Cultivation of the protein rich soybean – used in products such as margarine, cosmetics and meat replacement dishes – is causing the carbon sink, home to 5% of the world’s species, to lose its dense vegetation. Nearly one–third of all soybean exports goes to the EU. Brazil, the second largest soy exporter, after the US, has seen soy expansion soar over the last 10 years.

Michael Becker of WWF said: “If you want to make a comparison to the Amazon, it’s like the inverted forest. I think that in the last decades, a lot of the attention has been driven to the Amazon region. Now I think we need to look at other biomes in Brazil, such as the Cerrado, the Pantanal and the Atlantic forest, where you have similar patterns that will affect the biodiversity of Brazil in the long-term.”

Deforestation in the region runs at around 14.2 square km a year, with the annual rate between 2002-2008 running at 4%.

The Cerrado is also a vital water source, with the rivers generating electricity for nine in 10 Brazilians. There are fears locally that the rising agriculture industry in the region is polluting water supplies.

José Correia Quintal, 52, runs a co-operative near the second largest national park in the Cerrado, the Grande Sertão Veredas, and has lived in the area his whole life. His co-op provides work to local communities, as they use the Cerrado’s vegetation to make local medicines and foodstuffs.

“Agrochemicals used in the Cerrado are affecting people’s health,” he said. “It is also contaminating the rivers. There is a concern that if this keeps the way it is there will be a problem with the water resources, and we will live as the people in the north-east region of Brazil live now, where water is now scarce.”

One proposed solution is the Round Table for Responsible Soy (RTRS), an association of industry, civil society and producers focused on environmental, labour and health issues involving soy farmers and industries.

Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer have agreed to become RTRS members when the scheme comes into place. However, guidelines are only now being presented to soybean producers.

John Landers promotes responsible farming techniques in the region, and although an RTRS member, says there are difficulties with the scheme.

“There’s no premium currently developed for responsible soy … we have to see a return for the extra effort the farmer has to put in to demonstrate that he is being responsible.”

Due to the current lack of a premium – not dissimilar to the Fair trade model – RTRS has yet to make an substantial impact on soy farmers in Brazil. Yet expansion continues: agriculture company SLC Agricola, said it had identified 71m hectares of land in Brazil still available legally for agriculture, including former pasture land.

With illegal and irresponsible agriculture also an issue, the race is on to put RTRS guidelines into place before any further development continues. “Three percent of the Cerrado is protected effectively,” Becker added. “The environmental ministry of Brazil has agreed to the UN target of 14% [protection] for the Cerrado. If we reach a 14% protective area, that’s an achievement.’

Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park is Africa’s oldest national park, one of the few places in the world wheregorilla populations are not in steep decline.

The area hosts an incredibly rich biodiversity, including: chimpanzees, hippos, elephants and other rare species. 

Yet, several companies plan to explore for oil inside the park, including the UK based companies SOCO and Dominion, posing a threat to the area’s sensitive balance. If the project goes forward, it will threaten Virunga’s wildlife and jeopardise decades of costly conservation work. 

We urgently need your help to convince these companies to abandon their planned operations inside the Park!
WWF – Action Center.

Read more

Virunga National Park is home to over 700 species of bird and more than 200 species of mammal, including chimpanzees, hippos, elephants and other rare species. Virunga was the first national park in Africa to be afforded status as a World Heritage Site. The World Heritage Committee has recently expressed its “deep concern with regard to the envisaged oil prospecting projects overlapping the property”

The area where the oil exploration is due to occur once had one of the highest biomass densities of wild mammals ever recorded on Earth. Yet this wildlife has already suffered enormous pressures – with civil strife in recent years facilitating poaching and destruction of forest habitat. 

Despite these challenging circumstances, the Virunga Massif – of which Virunga National Park is part – is one of the only places in the world where gorilla populations are not in steep decline, thanks to decades of conservation work by the government, local communities and conservation organizations. A recent survey revealed a 26% increase in the mountain gorilla population since the last survey in 2003. This is a remarkable achievement, particularly when considering the status of other gorilla populations – the UN recently stated that gorillas “may disappear from most of their present range in less than 10-15 years from now.”

If this development goes ahead it could not only threaten a vast array of Virunga’s wildlife and jeopardise decades of costly conservation achievement, but set a dangerous precedent that anywhere – no matter how protected or vulnerable – is fair game for exploration by oil and gas company giants.

Earth Hour 2011: Beyond the Hour from WWF on Vimeo.

This Earth Hour 2011: 8.30pm, Saturday 26 March, celebrate your action for the planet with the people of world, and add more to your Earth Hour.

From its inception as a single-city initiative — Sydney, Australia – in 2007, Earth Hour has grown into a global symbol of hope and movement for change. Earth Hour 2010 created history as the world’s largest ever voluntary action with people, businesses and governments in 128 countries across every continent coming together to celebrate an unambiguous commitment to the one thing that unites us all — the planet.

Sign up to earthhour.org, switch off your lights for Earth Hour 2011, and share the positive actions you will sustain for earth beyond the hour.

 
Earth Hour 2011 Official Video from WWF on Vimeo.

Rhinos are Critically Endangered from Green Renaissance on Vimeo.

Urgent: help stop oil exploration inside one of Africa’s most iconic national parks

WWF – Action Center.

Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park is Africa’s oldest national park, one of the few places in the world wheregorilla populations are not in steep decline.

Your shampoo, your ice cream, your margarine, your lipstick — all contain palm oil. Demand is still growing, as are oil palm plantations… but at what price to tropical forests and the biodiversity found there? Read more: http://wwf.panda.org/lpr