Saving Tropical Forests Through Technology and Economic Incentives
REDD+ aims to save and protect tropical forests, thus playing a major role in combating climate change and protecting biological diversity. However, many tropical countries lack the necessary forest monitoring method required for REDD+ funding, such as remote sensing with radar satellites and nation-wide forest inventories.
Deforestation amounts to 130.000 km2 every year. This is equal to 60.000 soccer fields each day, and takes place mainly in tropical forests in the Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia. If all the carbon in the cut forest is converted to CO2 it amounts to 10-15 per cent of the global emissions of greenhouse gases.
REDD+, an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and land Degradation, is an initiative to use economic incentives to save tropical forests from being cut and on-the-ground activities to prevent deforestation and land degradation.
Joseph King