Why Every Country Should Dedicate 30% of Their Land to Nature
By doing that and achieving it we take a big step towards a brighter and much safer future.
As governments around the world are contemplating their next steps to reduce global warming and adverse climatic conditions, one country, in particular, is setting an example. Not only, is this particular country way ahead already in its efforts, but also they are increasing its contributions dramatically.
The Scottish Government has recently announced that they will fence 30% of the country’s land to be dedicated to forests in the next 10 year’s time. At the moment, 22.7% of forest land in Scotland receives protection along with 37% of the marine environment within their borders. And commenting on the decision, Roseanna Cunningham, Environment Secretary, said that this is going to be an effort that hasn’t been put together at such a scale.
This decision by a European country comes at a time when nature is facing huge challenges because of human activity. Protecting forestland ultimately makes sure that nature, water, and nutrient cycles, which we all benefit from in one form or another, stay intact and that the native species of trees, plants, microbes and animals, all enjoy habitat protection.
“Dealing with the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss is one of the most important challenges of this generation. It requires global action and Scotland has played a key leadership role in international negotiations, agreeing ‘The Edinburgh Declaration’ with international partners.” — Environment Secretary of Scotland, Roseanna Cunningham.
But, why is it important to ensure that the forest land is protected?
Why is there a sense of urgency in the way Scottish governments have taken the decision?
And finally, why do we need to ensure that this model is replicated across borders and countries?
In this article, we want to go through all these questions and try to answer them using numbers and logic. And, to do that, we need to first understand where we stand when it comes to forest cover and biodiversity.
The Current State Of Forests
It would be an understatement to say that we are losing our forest cover around the world at alarming rates. At the moment forests cover 31% of the global land area. This includes almost half of the original forests that are preserved and about a third of primary forests (i.e. forest land that has naturally formed from native species of plants and trees).
But, the problem is that more than half of the entire world’s forest land is found in just 5 countries. The Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America, and China. And, this doesn’t improve for the rest of the forest land either, as almost two-thirds of forest land is found in just 10 countries.
It is estimated that about 420 million hectares of forest have been lost since 1990. And, between 2015 and 2020 the rate of forest loss globally was estimated at 10 million hectares per year. This is down from an average of 16 million hectares that were the trend in the 1990s. Still, the rate is way too high for it to be anywhere close to being sustainable. Well, calling forest loss sustainable in itself is counterproductive, but that is the reality.
The reasons for the loss of forest land are multifold. Among these conversion to agricultural use remains one of the top reasons. 40% of the loss is due to large-scale commercial agriculture, primarily cattle ranching and cultivation of soya beans and palm for oil. And another 33% due to conversion to local agricultural needs.
And, the reality is that only 18% of the global forest land lies in protected areas. The rest is up for grabs and without a plan or a policy in place for countries the original 31% of the land will fall to this number eventually. Should that happen, it would be catastrophic. Not just from an environmental or sustainability perspective, but also from a perspective of livelihood and support for communities that call these forests home.
Not to mention that forest provides about 86 million green jobs globally, and 90% of the people who live in extreme poverty rely on forests for a part of their livelihood. But, even this isn’t the biggest reason we should ensure that we bring legislation around forest cover.
The biggest reason to do that is of course the unprecedented loss of biodiversity that we are witnessing. Habitat loss remains the biggest driver of extinction in species, and of which we are seeing a lot. About a million species globally, both land-based and marine, are on the verge of extinction according to a UN report. Every time a species goes extinct, the habitat it lived in changes forever. Almost always, it results in an imbalance in all of the natural cycles we know of.
How Can We Make A Difference
There is still time. We can still ensure that we take steps that will protect the forest land that we have. And, the best way to do it by far is to create legislation around the same. Similar to what Scotland did. Of course, it is not the only thing that will ensure that the forest lands remain protected. But, this is a start.
And, it has to follow up with similarly strict enforcement of the legality. Once, we have these in place, there is scope for further development and education to make sure that we are heading in the right direction. The move by Scotland is a welcome one and one that has resonated across the globe with people who are working tirelessly to make this a reality everywhere.
Even though we have a forest cover of around 30% globally, it is really important that we have it evenly distributed across geographies. For e.g. the European Union has only 5% of its total land as forest cover. And, this is a trend that you can see everywhere else.
We’ll need a collective effort to reach this destination. A place where we can enjoy 30% of land per country dedicated to nature. This might not be feasible for some countries where land area is minimal or isn’t ideal, but this is feasible if we look at the rest of the world.
To make this all a reality, sustainability is the key. Especially when it comes to commercial agriculture and animal husbandry.
Since 73% of the forest land that we lose every year is directly used for the expansion of these activities. Without a plan to ensure that our agriculture needs are met using sustainable techniques, reaching this goal of 30% of forest cover is quite simply impossible. With a growing population and consequent demand, we need to ensure that these are thought of well in advance. There are many ways to do it, but that’s a story for another discussion.
So here’s a thought you can take from this — ‘Keeping everything aside, wouldn’t simply having access to nature within your country be amazing? Wouldn’t that help in most, if not all, of the problems we are facing today?’
