Are forests the real answer for climate change mitigation?

According to the newest IPCC report, we are faced with the global crisis of rising temperatures which if not solved, will result in the 2 Celsius global temperature rise. Large scale changes are taking place in the ecosystem services which are creating disturbances and stresses in the ability of ecosystems to survive and adapt. Climate change has already started to affect the already vulnerable communities that depend on the land and natural resources for their livelihoods. These communities are also the most affected when nature takes its toll due to its excessive degradation and human-misuse.

So far, globally, scientists, policy-makers and climate change scientists are focussing on curbing fossil fuel consumption,  transforming to renewable energy or supporting climate change with quantifiable data. However, the utmost need of the hour is to invest efforts in a comprehensive solution which is currently the most powerful and cost-efficient carbon-capture technology the world has yet seen: forests. Recent scientific research proves that forests and other “natural solutions” are crucial in alleviating the effects of global warming because of their carbon sequestering attribute. In fact, natural climate solutions can help us achieve 37 percent of our climate target, even though they currently receive only 2.5 percent of public climate financing.

Now, the question which most of us would raise is how can something as basic as forests solve the global catastrophic problem of climate change? Forests superpower of carbon sequestration is remarkable – one tree can store annually an average of about 20 kgs of carbon dioxide (source – Earth Share). Due to its high carbon dioxide storing capacity, systematic afforestation is gaining worldwide attention from policy-makers, NGOs, companies and business leaders.

Protecting forests ortrees, in general, have multiple benefits. Forests help in climate changemitigation, providing habits to indigenous species and are sources oflivelihoods for local communities. Forests filter our air and keep it fresh,stabilize the soil and prevent erosion, improve water quality by slowing andfiltering rain water as well as protect aquifers and watersheds, inducerainfall by evaporating water from their leaves , provide food, shade andshelter to humans and wildlife,  offerprotection from the downward fall of rain, sleet and hail as well as reduce stormrun-off and the possibility of flooding, and provide timber and non-timberproduce for local communities to rely on for economic prosperity. Throughforests we will be able to address diverse issues – food security in manyareas, increase farm productivity with an increase in farm-related produce andthereby, help in putting an end to suicide rates amongst farmers. Communitymanaged forests provide avenues for jobs for local communities and help ineconomic prosperity leading to the blooming of schools, medical facilities, andother services in otherwise impoverished regions. Restored forests provide arenewed resource base.

Can you think of someone other than trees and forests who give us so selflessly without asking for almost nothing in return?

Despite its numerous benefits, we are faced with the global crisis of deforestation and much of it is as a response to turn forests into agricultural lands. Having said that, there has been some hope regenerated in developing economies like India through the sustained efforts of one such social enterprise who has grown over 3.9 million trees (last 9 years) across India and is soon planning to plant trees in Africa as well. Grow-Trees enables individuals and corporates to greet their loved ones with trees in the form of eTreeCertificates® at a nominal rate of 85 INR i.e, less than almost a dollar! Grow-Trees believes in breaking the cliches and reconstructing the whole card-gifting culture into a green practice which serves the biodiversity, water resources, pollution levels, and tribal communities.

Grow-Trees was started in 2010 on the World Environment Day by Pradip Shah, the founder of Indias first credit-rating agency, CRISIL. This was the point when climate change and concepts of sustainable development had started to gain popularity globally. In 1992, Pradip Shah, an MBA from Harvard Business School, discovered this Greet with Trees® tradition in Israel where he had gone to provide his insights on establishing a credit rating agency. India being such a huge economy should inculcate this tradition amongst individuals and companies to Greet with Trees® – plant a real tree in public lands and dedicate it to greet employees/customers/friends with an attractive eTreeCertificate. These trees not only enable one to distinctively greet a friend but also help create incomes for rural residents, improve wildlife habitats, enhance water catchment, and fight climate change.

Few other NGOs and socialenterprises are working on similar businesses but Grow-Trees consistency anddetermination over the years have made them the stalwarts of Indian forests andtrees across 16 states of India.Many projects fail because they choose thewrong trees, use too few species or are not managed for the long term.Foresters and ecologists are realizing that for restoration efforts to succeed,they need to think more broadly about matching trees to their location, aboutthe effects on nearby insects and other animals and about relationships withsoil and the changing climate. In other words: the ecosystem, shares Bikrant Tiwary,CEO of Grow-Trees.

The time is ripe for makingconcrete efforts for climate change solutions. Its the need of the hour to payattention to forest and biodiversity protection and restoration. In doing so,we will be also addressing a number of other pressing global issues. Localcommunities need to be encouraged to be a part of climate change solutions asthey are the most vulnerable. In production landscapes where large-scale treecover increases are difficult, agroforestry serves as an attractive compromise.Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long timeago. Be that someone and participate in the most effective climate changesolution – afforestation by planting a tree with Grow-Trees.