You cannot separate forests and agriculture

 

 

 

To save forests, look at farming practices

A new framework helps countries assess whether to cut emissions from forestry or agriculture.

by

SAMUEL MCGLENNON

The most promising interventions to reduce emissions in tropical forest-rich countries like Indonesia, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) may not lie in the forest at all.

Instead, those interventions might be right under our noses—in the food on our plates.

This is because, as scientist Sarah Carter puts it, you cannot separate forests and agriculture.

“To look after forests, you have to look hard at agriculture,” said Carter, the lead author of a study on reducing emissions from agriculture, from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

“And agriculture means the food we eat, and how and where it is produced,” she added.

Motivated by this well-evidenced conclusion, Carter and other CIFOR scientists embarked on a pantropical study to canvas and compare the potential emission reductions of interventions in the agricultural and forest sectors.

Read the full article: Forest News