A pivotal pledge to save and restore our planet’s forests was officially announced on the second day of the COP26 World Leaders Summit, and with that deal came a long list of commitments from public and private sector actors to combat climate change, curb biodiversity destruction and hunger, and to protect indigenous peoples’ rights. Source: Timberbiz
Fittingly, the COP26 plenary was lit up in green, and the room was filled with the sounds of chirping birds and rustling leaves coming from the giant video screens and speakers. There even seemed to be general calm among the delegates, almost as if they were already breathing cleaner air.
“Today is going to be a monumental day, we are setting the tone of how we can preserve the lungs of the world,” declared Master of Ceremony Sandrine Dixson-Declève, who welcomed participants to the key Leaders Event on Forest and Land Use at COP26 on Tuesday.
Next, a film narrated by Sir David Attenborough played on the screens.
“By destroying forests, we are harming biodiversity and our lives… Forests provide fresh water, clean the air we breathe, inspire spiritual value, and provide us with food…Our challenge now must be to halt restoration and beginning to restore forests. It is a huge undertaking, and every country will need their own table approach.”
His unmistakable voice resonated throughout venue. And his call to action was heard.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson came to the podium to announce that at least 110 countries representing 85% of the planet’s forests had signed the pivotal COP26 Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use, committing to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.
“Protecting our forest is not only a course of action for tackling climate change but also for a more prosperous future,” he said.
Mr Johnson highlighted that China, Russia and Brazil have also joined the promise, which he believed could be also a ‘parallel’ opportunity for job creation. Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and well as Brazil’s, Jair Bolsonaro, appeared in a pre-recorded message supporting the pledge, among other leaders absent from the COP.
“Signing the Declaration is the easy part. It is essential that it is implemented now for people and the planet,” UN chief António Guterres urged on his official twitter account. Through the Declaration, leaders promise to strengthen their shared efforts to conserve forest and other terrestrial ecosystems and accelerate their restoration, as well as facilitate sustainable trade and development policies, internationally and domestically.
The text also notes the empowerment of local communities, including indigenous peoples, which are often negatively affected by the exploitation and degradation of forests.
The Declaration aims to implement and redesign agricultural policies and programs to reduce hunger and benefit the environment. Finance is also key on the pledge, as leaders promised to facilitate the alignment of financial flows with international goals to reverse loss and degradation, while ensuring policies to accelerate a transition to a greener economy.
In the last decade, roughly 40 times more finance flowed into destructive land-use practices rather than forest protection, conservation and sustainable agriculture. The commitment signed by more than 30 financial institutions covering more than US$8.7 trillion of global assets under management seeks to change that. It aims to move away from portfolios that invest in high deforestation-risk agricultural commodity supply chains and towards sustainable production.
US President Joe Biden said that 20 million hectares of forest land is already being restored and that the US is announcing a new plan to support the halt of deforestation and restoring carbon sinks.
“We need to approach this issue with the same seriousness as decarbonizing our economies. That’s what we’re doing in the United States”, he said.
Noting that billions of dollars would be mobilized, Mr. Biden added that the US aims to support the restoration of 200 million hectares of forest by 2030.
Meanwhile, President Ivan Duque of Colombia promised to protect 30% of his country’s territory by 2022.
“We can’t wait until 2030, we must act now to protect our forests”, he said, gaining an ovation of the room for one of the most ambitious promises presented at COP26.
