Save Our Forests

Hello. Just to let you know, that I am back online after a period of time. Going forward from this year 2025, the images for these blog posts, will carry my business logo and business website. Today, I want to talk about saving forests. Why save forests? Forests are vital for climate regulation, biodiversity, clean air and water, soil conservation, and human livelihoods. Forests provide a wide array of resources including timber for construction, fuel, paper, and other processed goods. They are also the source of many foods, spices and medicinal plants. Forests even offer spaces for recreation, and can provide cultural inspiration, improving our overall well-being.

Each year, humans clear about ten million hectares of forests. The loss of these ecosystems is devastating for wildlife, and for many people who rely on forests for food, water and other essentials. Deforestation is very serious, and is causing climate change. The felling of trees in tropical areas releases more than 5.6 billion tonnes of planet-warming greenhouse gases each year. This is  more than four times the combined total of aviation and shipping.

For the Paris Agreement on climate change, experts are urging them to include concrete targets to end deforestation and restore forests. Without those provisions, experts say, countries may be forced to endure a climate crisis that is shattering temperature records, and unleashing extreme weather around the world. To slow climate change, we must halt deforestation!

Trees are some of the planet’s most important warehouses of carbon, absorbing the element from the air via photosynthesis, and storing it in their leaves, roots and trunks. But when trees decay, or are burned, they release stored carbon into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. This is a greenhouse gas that traps heat near the Earth’s surface, raising temperatures and propelling climate change. The loss of trees means that forests are no longer able to absorb as much carbon from the air as before.

Human activities, like the burning of fossil fuels, are pushing greenhouse gas emissions to record levels, causing climate upheaval, including flooding, droughts and wildfires. These catastrophes affect millions of people, and cause trillions of dollars in economic losses every year. Cutting emissions quickly by saving and restoring forests is considered vital. To keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, a key goal of the Paris Agreement, is that the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 22 gigatonnes annually by 2030. Halting deforestation could reduce emissions by 4 gigatonnes a year.

Protecting and restoring forests is one of many nature-based solutions that countries can use to limit greenhouse gas emissions. A UNEP report found that these strategies could help cut emissions, anywhere from 10 gigatonnes to 18 gigatonnes a year by 2050. The world has already lost about 420 million hectares of forests since 1990. From 2015-2020, the rate of deforestation was 10 million hectares a year. All 195 signatories of the Paris Agreement climate treaty adopted in 2015 must submit “Nationally Determined Contributions.” These climate plans outline how countries are going to reduce emissions, and can include everything from investments in renewable energy, to the promotion of more sustainable farming practices.

In early November 2025, Brazil announced details of a plan to pay countries to preserve their tropical forests, and announced it had already drawn about $5.5 billion dollars in pledges. The fund is a flagship project of president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It is an effort to draw attention and money to protecting rainforests, which are crucial for curbing global warming. The fund called the “Tropical Forests Forever Facility,” seeks to make the economic logic of deforestation a priority, by making it more lucrative for Governments to keep their trees, rather than to cut them down.

Although, destroying rainforests makes money for cattle ranchers, miners and illegal loggers, Brazil hopes to convince countries that preserving forests, promises richer rewards for the entire world, by absorbing huge amounts of planet-warming emissions.

Ways to help save our forests:

1. Set clearly defined targets for stopping deforestation and restoring forests within nationally determined contributions.

2. Support conservation organizations, and have forest protection laws for forest conservation.

3. Developing countries, which are home to the vast majority of deforestation, also need technical and financial support to live up to their commitments to protect forests.

4. The complex drivers of deforestation, including resource extraction, and the unchecked expansion of agriculture, will require national dialogues and trade-offs.

5. Plant trees and encourage school children to plant trees, to protect the earth and humans.

6. Choose responsibly sourced products. Choosing responsibly sourced products is important, because it drives significant positive impacts on the environment, promotes social equity and fair labor practices, and supports a more sustainable, resilient global economy.

7. Support Indigenous peoples, and consider the diverse perspectives of these people, plus rural communities, women and young people.

8. Promote eco-tourism on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, through Google Ads, and by partnering with travel blogs and community forums. Additionally, marketing should highlight a destination's commitment to sustainability, such as eco-friendly initiatives, green certifications, and community involvement in conservation projects. 

9. Use less paper to protect forests and biodiversity, reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and conserve energy and water. Reducing paper consumption also minimizes landfill waste, and can lead to cost and efficiency savings for businesses. 

10. Advocate for climate change solutions. Advocacy efforts help raise awareness about the seriousness of climate change, its causes, and potential solutions. By informing the public and decision makers, advocacy can create a sense of urgency and mobilize support for action.

11. Control forest fires by adopting the latest technologies of fire fighting.

12. Learn about forests by reading books. Also, you can learn about forests through online resources like the US Forest Service, Global Forest Watch, and the European Forest Institute, which offer data, programs, and research. For educational content, look into programs like Project Learning Tree or Discovering Forests from UNCC:Learn and for a visual approach, watch documentaries such as Our Planet and Planet Earth II. 

Let us all act now to save our forests, because they are truly vital for human survival and planetary health, providing clean air, regulating climate, filtering water, and also supporting biodiversity. Forests also provide resources such as food, medicine, and materials, while supporting the livelihoods of over one billion people who live in them, and around them.  Act now to save our forests!