Has reduction of green cover affected ecological degradation leading to global warming? Elaborate your answer with illustration. (UPSC CSE Mains 2019 - Sociology, Paper 2)
- Deforestation refers to the purposeful clearing or thinning of trees and forests. When deforestation occurs, much of the carbon stored by trees is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change. The most important driver of deforestation is the global demand for agricultural commodities: agribusinesses clear huge tracts of forest and use the land to plant high-value cash crops like palm oil and soya, and for cattle ranching.
- Land use change, principally deforestation, contributes 12–20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Forest degradation (changes that negatively affect a forest’s structure or function but that do not decrease its area), and the destruction of tropical peatlands, also contribute to these emissions. As a result of deforestation and degradation, some tropical forests now emit more carbon than they capture, turning them from a carbon ‘sink’ into a carbon source. For example, the south-eastern part of the Amazon Rainforest is now considered a net carbon source by scientists.
- Climate change is deeply intertwined with global patterns of inequality. The poorest and most vulnerable people bear the brunt of climate change impacts yet contribute the least to the crisis. As the impacts of climate change mount, millions of vulnerable people face disproportionate challenges in terms of extreme events, health effects, food, water, and livelihood security, migration and forced displacement, loss of cultural identity, and other related risks.
- Certain social groups are particularly vulnerable to crises, for example, female-headed households, children, persons with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples and ethnic minorities, landless tenants, migrant workers, displaced persons, sexual and gender minorities, older people, and other socially marginalized groups. The root causes of their vulnerability lie in a combination of their geographical locations; their financial, socio-economic, cultural, and gender status; and their access to resources, services, decision-making power, and justice.
- Scientists have recognised the value of protecting forests in tackling climate change. In response, policymakers have developed a family of policies – collectively known as ‘reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation’ (REDD) – to provide a financial incentive to governments, agribusinesses and communities to maintain and possibly increase, rather than reduce, forest cover. The plus in ‘REDD+’ refers to “the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries”. Under REDD+, incentives for forest protection are offered to countries, communities and individual landowners in exchange for slowing deforestation, and carrying out activities that promote reforestation and sustainable forest management. Where local people are properly involved in the REDD+ process it may also help alleviate rural poverty. The principles of REDD+ were further reinforced in the Paris Agreement on climate change.
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