Protecting and restoring tropical forests could provide up to a third of the solution to climate change, according to a report published today. Tropical Forests: A Review, published by The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit (ISU), is a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of science and policy in this area. It highlights the pivotal importance of tropical forests to achieving environmental and development goals, expected to be agreed later this year.

The report demonstrates that by slowing down emissions from forest conversion, increasing carbon absorption by reversing forest degradation, and encouraging forest regeneration, billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide could be kept out of the atmosphere. This would buy the world precious time to make stronger progress in tackling emissions from industry and the energy and transport sectors. The study concludes that the protection, recovery and restoration of tropical forests could contribute between one quarter and one third of the solution to climate change.

Tropical Forests: A Review also highlights the risks posed to agriculture as a result of changed rainfall patterns caused by forest loss. The recent severe drought in Brazil that has affected farm output and caused water stress to more than 20 million inhabitants of the Sao Paulo region is one possible indication of the potential consequences for water security arising from deforestation.

Read the full report

Because of this and other vital services provided by tropical forests, the report concludes that deforestation and forest degradation have received far too little attention on the international agenda in recent years, even though the annual loss rate is at about eight million hectares. An impassioned Foreword by The Prince of Wales sums up the urgency and vital importance of renewing efforts to stem the decline. His Royal Highness says the tropical forests are the “lungs” of “an essentially living, organic and integrated whole – our planet.” He adds that “we need to treat the Earth as if it were a patient. It is one, I fear, that is in an increasingly critical condition and which requires intensive care”.

Tony Juniper, Senior Adviser to the Prince’s Charities’ International Sustainability Unit, said: “The tropical forests are the most exuberant manifestations of life on Earth and are worth far more intact than when degraded or destroyed. New technologies are enabling a better understanding of where deforestation is occurring and among other things a clearer idea of both the contributions these ecosystems are making to climate change and how they might be harnessed in providing up to a third of the solution to it.”

Although forests are being cleared mostly to make way for crops, the report highlights also how more subtle changes taking place within the forests are leading to profound shifts in how these complex systems function.

For example, big animals and birds, such as pigs, elephants and hornbills that disperse seeds from forest trees are being removed by hunting. As these creatures are killed off, so vital internal dynamics in the forests are interrupted, leading over time to a reduction in carbon and water-related services.

This year, several intergovernmental negotiations are expected to result in major new agreements on sustainable development and climate change. Tropical Forests: A Review aims to provide a timely reminder as to why protecting the integrity and expansion of tropical forests makes so much economic and practical sense, both for the world and for tropical forest countries.

The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit