London has played host to the launch of the Forests NOW Declaration, a document calling on international governments to undertake a series of carbon policies and market reforms to safeguard the world’s tropical forests.
The declaration, which was launched in London on September 12, aims to use these policies and reforms to tackle deforestation, which the Global Canopy Programme, the international research network co-ordinating the progress of the declaration, claims will not only “score a big win against climate change” but will also help support ecosystems and communities.
“This is a declaration of hope,” said Andrew Mitchell, director of the Global Canopy Programme. “These forests support the livelihoods of 1.4 billion of the world’s poorest people, and offer services critical to humanity’s survival, such as rainfall regeneration and maintaining half of life of earth.”
More than 200 business leaders, NGOs and forest leaders have already backed the campaign, including the Australian Tropical Forest Institute, the Environmental Investigation Agency, the Ghana Institute of Foresters, Restore UK, the United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Marks & Spencer and Habitat, as well as the Brazilian secretary of state for the environment, Virgílio Viana, who signed the declaration in a ceremony performed above the canopy of the country’s rainforest.
The launch of the Forests NOW Declaration coincides with the start of the build-up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which takes place in Bali on December 3-14.
